Chapter 1: The Prologue Has Been Abandoned!

“Um, Rikka-san? You seem to be in a great mood so it’s hard to ask, but that
seems heavy; let me carry it.”
“Sure. Also, it’s not Rikka-san. Rikka.”

Takanashi Rikka-san’s – I mean, Rikka’s – happy smile turned into a pout. As

usual, her face changes when I call her that.

September 1st.

Yesterday was the last day of summer vacation – today’s the day of the school’s
opening ceremony.

Since Rikka said she wanted to go to school together today, we’re going to
school together.

Since the day I confessed, excluding the time when we were late, this is first
time that the two of us are going to school together. To get to Rikka’s apartment from
my house, I have to walk past the school gates.

If I may say so myself, walking past the school so that we could go to school
together is really stupid, but since it was our first time I ended up agreeing to it.

And, well, I’ve always wanted to go to school together!

While having such thoughts, I turned towards Rikka and asked, “Anyway,
what’s that?”

Her happy smile instantly returned.

“A present,” she happily replied as she stared at what she was embracing.

That – Rikka was carefully embracing a large rabbit doll.

I’ve seen something similar to this blue rabbit somewhere before. It looks like
Rikka made it herself.

“I wanted to show it to you first Yuuta. Thoughts?”

 “Rikka, you made that, right? Yeah, it’s extremely cute!”

“… Cute?”

“Yeah? It’s cute, isn’t it?”

“…This is the first time Yuuta’s called me cute.”

“……”

What an unexpected response!

Well, it’s true that I usually praise her as the strongest or the coolest.

Incidentally, on our first date I did call Rikka cute, although I wasn’t able to say
it clearly…

Wait, wasn’t I talking about the doll!?

Still, to call the doll cute without being able to call Rikka cute – am I useless!?

“Err, ah… that, wait. Please wait. Certainly, that doll is cute too. That doll is
cute, though… Rikka’s even cuter!”

This morning has been chaotic.

“Huh!? Yu-Yuuta, what’s with you all of a sudden!?”

“N, nothing! Wasn’t it really strange that I haven’t been calling you cute even
though I’ve called the doll cute!?”

“Well…! It, it’s fine! This doll contains my soul so talking about it the same as
talking about me!”

“I, I see! Then Rikka’s the first I’ve called cute! I’m glad!”

“Ugh… Devilish Truth Stare · Sealed Form – perfect complete activation!”

And.

Being unable to endure it, Rikka hid her blushing face behind the huge rabbit
doll, which abruptly ended the conversation.
 Since it was so chaotic, I would have said some more weird stuff, so I’m saved!
Thank you!

I really need to change the topic.

“So, err, whose present is that?”

“Eh, Kanzari’s.”

“Ah, Kanzari-chan. Kanzari-chan, is it her birthday or something?”

“Yeah, it’s a prize for winning a tournament – the Monster Rancher tournament
championship prize.”

“Why did you add that detail to the explanation…”

So that’s why the rabbit seemed familiar…

But well, both Rikka and Kanzari-chan really love games. Particularly retro
games. They are both quite skilled at them too. It’s not Monster Hunter, it’s Monster
Rancher.

Or perhaps I should say, the Monster Rancher tournament, even though it wasn’t
really a tournament.

How sad…

“But I would have gotten Kanzari’s life if I won the tournament… How
disappointing.”

“Why did Kanzari-chan wager her life!?”

“Don’t worry! It was an equivalent exchange!”

“That’s really cool, but isn’t Kanzari-chan’s life being treated too lightly!?”

“But Kanzari’s the one who proposed it… She was probably confident that she
could beat me.”

“Even if it was like that, it still seems…”

“Still, I’m glad I made this. I’ll be happy if Kanzari is pleased with this.”
 True to her word, Rikka looked really happy when she stared at the doll.

The rest of our walk to school was just like that, with Rikka and I having our
usual fun conversations, until we finally, when we just arrived at school – at that exact
moment.

A voice from behind suddenly addressed us.

Well, to be precise, it was more of a shout.

“Please wait a minute!”

Surprised by the sudden shout, Rikka and I turned towards the source of the
voice at the same time.

There was a girl standing imposingly, wearing a very refreshing smile. And,
again with a loud voice –

“Hahaha, you’ve finally been caught!”

“……”

Er, who…?

I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before, but it might just be just my
imagination.

Maybe I feel that way since part of her outfit consists of our school’s uniform.

Since the colour of her uniform’s ribbon is different, she must be an

upperclassman.

Hmmm… Apart from the ribbon, various other parts of the uniform were also
different… in terms of colour alone.

“…Uhhh…?”
 I was stumped by various different reasons. It happened so suddenly, her
uniform was so different and to top it all off being told to “wait a minute” by a
stranger left me completely speechless.

It was different, however, for Rikka.

“You’ve come…!”

“Haha, that’s right! Takanashi Rikka-chan!”

Wait, what?

Rikka’s so unusually shy of strangers that she won’t respond to anyone she
hasn’t met before; is this one of her acquaintances?

Her social circle seems to have expanded ever since she started playing with
Kanzari-chan.

“!? … Why do you hinder us! …By the way, Yuuta, the word for ‘hinder’ is
really cool!”

“Don’t just suddenly talk to me after putting on airs!”

It’s quite hard to handle when you suddenly turn towards me with sparkling
eyes.

But, then again… it certainly is a cool word!

“Ahaha! Either way, as we expected you’re as talented as the rumours say. Yes,
very good. It seems that you possess a very strong power.”

“Huh!? How do you know about my powers!”

“We can tell by looking at them if a person has special powers.”

“Ooo, amazing!”

“Right, isn’t it amazing?”, the girl in front of me says while nodding her head in
satisfaction.

Gazing over at Rikka – just like I thought, she was satisfied, since she was told
that she had ‘special powers’.
 Hmm.

I’m getting the sense that I’m the only one being left out.

However, I wasn’t able to join in with their conversation and could only watch
as they continued back and forth.

“How’s that? Don’t you want to become our subordinate?”

“Never! Yuuta and I are already contracted!”

“Damn…rejected! And so quickly too!”

“Of course! The Devilish Truth Stare is the strongest!”

“So, as expected… Looks like it can’t be helped. There’s only that method
left…”

…Those lines feel like they belong to some battle manga.

Or maybe it’s just me.

Since I was lonely by myself, I was playing the straight man in my mind. While I
was thinking that, the girl suddenly turned towards me and asked:

“You, the normal-kun over there, are you her boyfriend?”

She was glaring at me so intensely that I could almost hear the glare.

Her glare was so intense – it even looked like that there was an aura flowing out
of her. It was so overbearing that it made me groan “ugh” as I was forced to took a
step back.

But well, the question of whether or not I’m her boyfriend had to be answered
properly.

“I’m her boyfriend,” I declared.

After hearing my words, the girl’s expression turned serious and –

 “Please hand over your lover!”

Said those words while kneeling on the ground.

“………Huh?”

No, that, this is…

Sadly, a situation like this occurred.

It seems like I’ve encountered the greatest crisis of my life.

Since entering high school I’ve already encountered several life crises, but this
one is by far the greatest crisis I’ve ever faced.

I completely forgot that this exchange was being held right in front of the school
gates. By the time I noticed, I could feel cold stares directed at me from my
surroundings. On top of that, more and more bystanders were beginning to gather.

It felt like with each passing moment, the situation was getting worse and worse.

If I were to briefly explain the current situation, it would that a high-school girl
suddenly kneeled before me in front of the school gates, right before my girlfriend –
and under these simple circumstances, my mind went completely blank.

Although the reason behind it was unclear, it was a simple situation like that.

But, from a bystander’s point of view – a high school girl is being made to
prostrate herself by a scumbag in front of the school gates (and in front of his
girlfriend, too). What are they going conclude!

Also, that scumbag is me.

Even though I didn’t know how things ended up this way, I do know that if this
continued, my school life would be over.

No matter what, I have to destroy the current situation immediately!

Making up my mind, I called out to the girl (temporarily Prostrate-senpai)

kneeling in front of me.
 “U-umm… for now could you please lift up your head…? While you’re at it,
could you also please stop kneeling…”

I finally managed to say something, but it seemed like Prostrate-senpai missed

my point, since she suddenly raised her head and said:

“No can do! Not until you hand over your lover!”

After emphasising her request, she deeply lowered her head once again.

She even forcefully planted her foreface on the ground.

It was like she was trying to get permission to get married from an obstinate
father-in-law, displaying the proper etiquette despite the chance of failing, but…

“Th-this place is kind of… umm, err, I’ll definitely listen carefully to what you
have to say in a better place.”

“There’s no need to change: it’s fine here! Besides, isn’t it too normal to talk
about this in a place like a café!?”

“No, no, no! Prostrating in a place like this just makes other people think you’re
really strange!”

That logic applies to me as well!

“How wonderful!”

“Why are you pleased!?”

…This was beyond my expectations.

At any rate, I wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.

Compared to before, it seems that there were more strong gazes directed at me
and an increase in the number of bystanders.

In addition, Rikka was also completely stunned.

…Guess it can’t be helped.

“Rikka, let’s escape!”

 “Hm?”

I careful took Rikka’s – who was blinking in surprise – hand and ran at full
speed to flee into the school.

The grip I had on Rikka’s hand as we fled was so light that you couldn’t feel the
power behind it.

In the background, I could hear voices saying stuff like “what’s this?”, “what’s
happening” and “isn’t that person…”, but I wasn’t concerned by any of that.

After passing the school gates, we kept on running until we reached the back of
the gym, where it was devoid of people.

“… Ha, ha whew… tired…”

Since I was part of the going home club, I have never needed to run with all my
might before, so I was completely out of breath. Rikka, on the other hand, seemed
completely fine.

Damn… being part of the going home club is really uncool…

How.

Just when I started having stupid thoughts.

Next to me, who was catching his breath – Prostrate-senpai only needed one
deep “whew” to catch her breath.

She caught up to us as if it were normal.

We didn’t escape at all!

After Prostrate-senpai took her deep breath, she fixed her hair that got
dishevelled from running, then she turned towards me and looked straight at me.

“Geez, there was no need to come to a place that had no people.”

With that, she paused the conversation momentarily, and after a short moment a
daring smile started to slip out.
 “Whatever, it’s still fine. Now then, we ask of you once again – please hand over
your lover!”

And then.

For the second time today.

As if she was showing her gratitude in a tea ceremony, her balance and posture
was perfect as she prostrated before me.

It seems like the tragic series of events are far from over.

Chapter 2: Rainbow Maiden

Back then, I didn’t recognise who she was since the situation was so abrupt, but
now I finally remember.I knew who the girl before my eyes, Prostrate-senpai, was.
Although I said that I knew her, as it was one sided, it is probably more accurate
to say, “I knew of her”.She’s so famous that almost nobody in the school didn’t know
who she was.

There isn’t anybody who doesn’t know who she is – actually, it might be more
accurate to say that there’s no one who wouldn’t turn their head in her presence.

Her full name is Amaniji Hideri.

An upperclassman who’s a year above us.

A distinct existence.

There’s a reason why Prostrate-senpai – I mean, Amaniji Hideri-senpai – was so

famous.

Her nickname – the rainbow-haired maiden.

While her hairstyle visibly changes every day, that’s not the reason why she’s
called the rainbow-haired maiden; it’s because her hair is literally dyed seven different
colours.

However, even though there were seven basic colours, her hair wasn’t colour-
coded like a rainbow. The tips of her bangs were pale yellow. Moving up the bangs,
the pale yellow gradually shifted into a light orange, and then a soft red. In turn the
soft red slowly turned into pink and violet. The long ends of her hair were beautiful
shades of light blue and green.

As a result, it feels like her hair’s radiating a sense of prominence.

Her uniform was, of course, adorned with rainbow-coloured accessories.

Wearing a rainbow slinky (the thing that you drop down stairs to play with) on
her arm, I’m sure that anyone who saw her would think that she’s a gaudy person.

In addition, her skirt, similar to Rikka’s, looked like it had been remodelled. It
too, by the way, also looked gaudy.

Seriously, the design and the colours were way too different.

Since her hair and uniform were so striking it’s hard to notice, but her face was
also well-balanced.

Her skin looked much lighter than it was because of her bright hair.

Furthermore, her large eyes were oddly beautiful.

Her glistening eyes seems to have the effect of drawing people’s attention in a
way that’s different from how Rikka’s Devilish Truth Stare charms people.

It was the first time I’ve looked at her closely, but her face, in my opinion, is
first-class.

On top of that, while she isn’t that tall, her chest was still large enough to arouse
the lust of a high school boy.

In spite of her slim figure, her looks were still top-tier.

But due to her flashiness and prominence, no one talked to her – there seems to
be no rumours about anyone who got charmed by her.

I wasn’t clear about the details about this though; this information is from my
close friend, Isshiki Makoto.

While it’s a bit off-topic, there’s also a rumour that she never gets called on to
answer questions in class. Apparently, all she does in class is stare at the teacher – she
doesn’t even take any notes. Despite that, she still hasn’t been called upon to answer
any questions.

Well, when it’s full of eccentric stories like that, it feels like the rumours have
begun take a life of its own. There were even rumours (according to Isshiki) about her
not being human. As a result, Amaniji-senpai became quite a celebrity within the
school.

So why is such a famous person kneeling before me?

Naturally, I didn’t have a relationship with Amaniji-senpai.

I only knew who she was thanks to the rumours and the information from
Isshiki. I’m sure that Amaniji-senpai doesn’t even know my name.

Since that’s the case, she’s must be one of Rikka’s acquaintances…

I’m very sorry since you’re in the middle of kneeling, but I really need to talk to
Rikka about this. Whispering, I asked:

“Hey, Rikka. She’s your acquaintance, right? Could you deal with her?”

“Eh…? But I don’t know who this person is…”

“You’re not acquainted!?”

You were having a proper conversation with her in public, so I assumed that you
two were acquainted, but it looks like I was wrong.

Then again, the conservation did feel like it was dialogue from a play.

“…Then, why did you say, “did you come”?”

“The mood.”

“The mood!?”

Weren’t you in high spirits, Rikka-san!

This morning was full of tension (I might have caused half of it), so I guess there
probably was that kind of mood there.
 Regardless, it seems like Rikka’s changing. While it’s common for her to act like
that in response to the mood, she usuqlly wouldn’t be able to have a conversation like
that with a stranger.

Of course, this change was good.

But, if she’s not Rikka’s acquaintance, then the question of “what the heck does
she want from us?” remains.

And, since it seemed like she’d continue to prostrate before me unless I did
something, I gently called out to her.

“Umm, I’ll listen to what you have to say, so for the time being could you please
stand normally for me.”

“Oh. Well, fine. Looks like it can’t be helped… it’s hard to talk in while
prostrating!”

Hopping up as she said that, she nimbly rose.

However, she was completely indifferent to request; she stood in an eccentric

way.

Her left aim pointed to the sky, while her right arm pointed to the ground – to be
honest, it looked like the Universal Demon Stance[1].

I couldn’t help but stare at it closely.

“…Err, did you understand my request at all!? Can you not stand normally!?”

“Nope, not at all. Even if you ask it of us, it’s not possible for us to do things
normally. Sorry.”

“…”

Is that so…

Since I didn’t have any experience talking to someone in such a stance (I do

find people like that unpleasant, however), I’m sure I had a puzzled look on my face.
As she turned towards me, I got the feeling that Amaniji-senpai was about to burst
into laughter looking at my face.
 Just like the rumours said, it seems that she has a strange personality.

“Oh, right – we haven’t introduced ourselves, have we? We’ve an

upperclassman that’s a year level above you, Amaniji Hideri. We’ve pleased to make
your acquaintance. From now on, please treat us well!”

“Ha… I sort of already knew who you are, but… Uhh, I’m Togashi Yuuta, and
I’ll be in your care too.”

Since she gave me her self-introduction, it was only fair that I did the same.

After I introduced myself, Rikka –

“I’m Takanashi Rikka.”

– responded normally.

Oh? It’s rare for Rikka to introduce herself normally. It might be since she’s
talking to an upperclassman.

“But my true name is ‘Wielder of the Strongest Devilish Truth Stare, Yuuta’s
Contracted Jet Black Fallen Angel – Takanashi Rikka’. Pleased to meet you.”

However, shortly afterwards, she added that part of her usual self-introduction as
well, and then gave a brief bow.

Damn it, return to me the feeling that it was unusual!

“Okay, Wielder of the Strongest Devilish Truth Stare, Yuuta’s Contracted Jet
Black Fallen Angel – Takanashi Rikka-chan.”

“You’re going to call her that every time!?”

That retort was mine.

Still, it made me think.

My plain full name is quite easy for people to get wrong.

“Hmm, we thought that it’d be alright since your full name’s super cool, but
we’re certain that it’s too normal to call you by your full name. Well then… how
about we abbreviate it to Devilish Truth Rikka-chan, or DevTru Rikka-chan?”
 “…Guess it can’t be helped, but I don’t mind.”

…It can’t be helped, huh. You don’t mind, huh.

Perhaps it’s a little cool through. Rikka looked really satisfied.

“Great! That’s decided then! Oh, about our nickname, feel free to call us
Rainbow Hideri-san!”

“…Urk… disagreeable…”

“Eh, disagreeable…? Uh…? Ah, what about Arc-san…?”

“It’s pointlessly cool!?”

The retort came from me again.

Opps, it’s my usual habit again… I’m sorry for interrupting in the middle of the
conversation.

Hmm, looks like I can’t escape from the sad fate of the straight man.

“Heh heh, that’s right, that’s right. Our name could be translated as Arc-en-Ciel
Hideri. To not have seen a pattern as obvious as that until now, there must have been
something wrong with our eyes! It’s a reliable nickname. Pleased to meet you,
DevTru Rikka-chan!”

After saying that, Amaniji-senpai finally stood normally, and then bowed her
head.

Although her personality’s a bit strange, it seems like introductions are still done
properly.

Well then, now that our self-introductions are more or less done, it’s time to talk
about main subject.

“Um, Amaniji-senpai –”

“Hey-hey-hey-hey! Amaniji-senpai is not normal! Normal’s no good!”

Amaniji-senpai suddenly interrupted me.

 Only her last phrase, “Normal’s no good!”, was said in a strong tone – at least, it
felt like it was.

Somehow, her facial expression was openly giving off a feeling of

discouragement. However, since her facial expression had changed only slightly, the
feeling of discouragement felt a bit of out of place.

Speaking about the mood, it seemed to resemble the mood that occurred a short
while ago, where being ‘normal’ wasn’t acceptable.

But since I wasn’t able to change the mood, I went along with it.

“We-well, how about something like Hideri-senpai-san?”

“Hmm… you’re kind of normal. But since the name’s a bit unique, we’ll give
you 40 points for it. It’s fine, but you should call us something that gives the
impression of ‘the seven lights of the blazing sun’.”

“While such a nickname suits you, please think about how I’d feel calling
someone with a nickname like that…!”

“…Seven Twinkle Sun, how cool.”

Rikka was so enamoured by the name to the extent that she forgot about
Amaniji-senpai’s presence.

Still, she did it in a way that escaped Amaniji-senpai’s notice – it looks like
Rikka’s guard was still up.

“Do you not like it? Well, how about something like ‘Iapnes-ijinama’?”

“You respond to being called nonsense like that!?”

“Jeez. You’re pretty selfish. We understand, we understand. Since you’re

normal, it’s fine if you call us Amaniji-senpai – it seems that you really are as normal
as you appear.”

“Done!”

I’m being treated too crudely.

 “Now, ordinary people don’t interest us at all. Hah, guess it can’t be helped. This
upperclassman will make an exception and call you ‘Normal-chan’. Oh, calling you
‘Normal-chan’ for the first time feels somewhat special. What do you think, DevTru
Rikka-chan?”

“…It’s acceptable.”

“……”

Rikka’s choice of words felt a bit thorny…

Perhaps she’s having mixed feelings because of her position in this conversation.

If that’s the case, I’m happy.

“Permission also obtained from DevTru Rikka-chan! Then Normal-chan it is!

Oh, as for our nickname, while it’s not our first preference, we’ve fine with you
addressing us as Amaniji-senpai.”

And, in the end.

Our nicknames for each other was decided against my wishes by Amaniji-senpai,
who was visibly displeased with being named that.

Her facial expression seemed to say, “it’s not a problem if you want to address
me with a strange nickname”.

Well then.

Let’s return to the main subject. If we don’t return to the main subject soon, the
school’s opening ceremony will start before the conversation’s over.

“So, Amaniji-senpai. Are you now happy to talk about what you wanted from
us?”

“Err, we’d like to just talk with DevTru Rikka-chan…”

Since it felt like she was pleading with me, I’ll let Amaniji-senpai meet her
beloved Rikka.

…She was to my immediate left just moments ago, but after I took a step back,
before I knew it Rikka was hidden right behind me again.
 Looks like this conversation is going nowhere.

Guess I’ll need to step in to facilitate the conversation.

“Hmm? Is DevTru Rikka-chan bashful?”

“…Something like that.”

“Hmm, guess we’ll also tell Normal-chan then. In that case, let us go over
today’s request once again. Normal-chan’s lover – that is, Takanashi Rikka-chan –
please hand her over to us,” said Amaniji-senpai for literally the third time – this time
with a polite bow.

I couldn’t tell from just from her posture and her tone of voice, but it didn’t feel
like a joke – it felt like a sincere, heartfelt desire.

However, I couldn’t understand the true meaning of her words.

I was completely ignorant as to what her request was.

“Uh… what exactly does that mean? If you don’t elaborate, I’m unable to
comprehend the what your request is…”

“Eh? But it’s exactly like we said. We like her. Therefore, we want you to hand
her over to us.”

“What?”

“There’s no hidden meaning, but from your expression it seems that you’re
rather confused. Shouldn’t this be pleasant? Hmm, but we guess that we are a bit
abnormal.”

“Pleasant!? Wait, but I didn’t want you to announce that you were abnormal!?

Ah, my retort gauge seems to be decreasing considerably…

Hmm, I wonder if I’ve ever retorted as much to a stranger as I have today… no, I
don’t think I have.

I’m confident that my weariness is showing on my face.

 “No way – you really are normal, aren’t you? Normally isn’t it better to be
abnormal? We mean, we like girls, so it’s a bit different, but isn’t everything we said
just now true –”

‘It’s true…!?’ is what I thought, but since my retort gauge was too low I couldn’t
vocalise my thoughts.

My retort gauge’s still recharging.

“– and so, we’ve come to ask of you: just a little while, could you please lend me
DevTru Rikka-chan’s abilities?”

“For a little while? Abilities?”

I tilted my head.

Sigh. What her intentions were became even more confusing.

Since she asked me to give her Rikka, I thought it might have been a declaration
of war for Rikka’s heart, but it seems like that’s not the case.

“…Phrasing it like that, what exactly is it that you want Rikka to do?”, I asked
frankly.

After I asked that, Amaniji-senpai stared at me motionlessly.

After she carefully stared at me for around five seconds, she closed her eyes and
vigorously nodded.

Her exaggerated movements gave away that she was regretful about it from the
bottom of her heart.

“Yeah, about that. We actually wanted to talk to DevTru Rikka-chan about this a
lot earlier, but DevTru Rikka-chan’s ability was too high for us to approach her.”

“Err… what does that mean?”

“To tell you the truth, during the summer holidays we’ve tried to approach her
several times about our request. Howevee, every time we got close to her, she would
say stuff to herself like “mm… someone from the Organisation!?”, causing us to
conceal ourselves.
 “Ah…”

I can definitely see that happening.

That’s just like Rikka.

“Even if we ambushed her, it was no good. We also didn’t know where she
lived, so we couldn’t contact her directly either… Well, it was sort of like playing
detective, so it was still pretty fun! Today, however, DevTru Rikka-chan seemed kind
of careless. Heh heh, maybe being with your boyfriend made you drop your guard?”,
Amaniji-senpai answered with a smile.

I see, what she said makes a lot of sense.

If I remember correctly, Rikka’s perception was so sharp that it did seem like a
sixth sense. I personally call it ‘Rikka Sense’[2].

Oh.

But I guess Rikka would say that it’s one of the Devilish Truth Stare’s abilities.

As a result of her sharp perception, she may have sensed some danger (Amaniji-
senpai did give off a dangerous aura), so Rikka may have been trying to avoid
Amaniji-senpai.

Still, I don’t know why Amaniji-senpai wants to meet up with Rikka.

“I now understand why you’ve come here to meet up with Rikka, but what
exactly is it that you wanted her do for you?”

“We were wondering if you would let her become our bride? Hm?”

“…No way.”

My disgust was probably showing in my eyes as I replied.

Meanwhile, you could see Amaniji-senpai bursting into laughter.

Incidentally, Rikka, who was behind me, whispered “absolutely no way.” It was
super-cute.
 “Like we said, Normal-chan really is too normal. We mean, you were so normal
that we couldn’t help but laugh!”

“No, anyone who suddenly hears stuff like that would have reacted in the same
way!”

“If that’s what Normal-chan’s thinks, does that mean you’re the straight man
among your friends?” Even if it’s normal to be the straight man, isn’t it pointless?”

“Uggh…!”

No way, I’m out of retorts!

That damaged me quite a bit…!

“Oh my. Saying strange things seems to wear down on my opponent health,
meaning that he’s unable to speak normally for a long time. You should practice
giving retorts more.”

“You should seriously be relieved that I seem unwell!”

Looks like my retort gauge has been recovering.

Although it was an ordinary retort, at least the retorts are coming!

But, ha… What happened just now gotme worried.

Nevertheless, I can’t get disheartened. If I can’t end this conversation soon, the
opening ceremony will start.

“…So, what exactly is your request?”

Due to our previous back and forth, I let out a small sigh when I asked her again.

Upon hearing my question, Amaniji-senpai’s happy expression tightened into a

serious face.

It seems this time she’ll actually tell us what she really wanted.

“Well, what we said previously was the truth, but there’s a slight detail we didn’t
tell you. We’ve part of the ‘Eccentric Drama Club’, and there’s a cultural festival
soon, right?”
 “Uhh, it’s in a week, right?”

“Yeah, and to tell you the truth, we don’t have enough actors. And so, I we were
eyeing DevTru Rikka-chan to join us. We were hoping that she could lend us her
power.”

As Amaniji-senpai finally told us about her request, she let out a short but deep
sigh.

I now finally understand what Amaniji-senpai’s request was.

The cultural festival.

Right, the cultural festival’s happening soon.

Today’s the beginning of the second semester, so there’s only a week until the
cultural festival.

Well, to be precise, including today there’s only nine days left.

As a result of our class poll, it was decided that our class was doing a dance for
the cultural festival.

As a matter of fact, I even went to school during the summer vacation to rehearse
for it.

While it mainly centred around the Class King Nibutani Shinka and the dance
club, all the girls in our class were taking part in the dance.

By the way, all the boys were part of the stage crew and were in charge of stuff
like lighting, props and setting the stage. However, this arrangement was what all the
boys wanted and carried all of our passionate hopes.

After all, we only want to see cute girls dance!

Naturally, we were still diligently rehearsing for the cultural festival.

Still, the club ‘Eccentric Drama Club’ that Amaniji-senpai belonged to was one
I’ve never heard of before.

Well, that might be due to the fact that I’m not very interested in joining any
clubs.
 Even so, I was still confused as to why their club activities – which, I’m sorry to
say, is still a mystery to me – would require Rikka.

I wonder if it’s because Amaniji-senpai thought that Rikka had the talent to be an
eccentric actress.

“Um, so why Rikka?”

“Hm? Oh, there were various reasons, but it probably boils down to the fact that
we were personally interested in her!”, Amaniji-senpai replied with a grin, sticking
her chest out with pride.

Seeing that, I couldn’t help but groan in my heart.

After all, I had a reason to groan, right? Yeah, I definitely had reasons to groan.

Amaniji-senpai’s appearance (including her uniform) belonged to a class of its

own, and you could say the same about her personality as well.

Even so, these reasons weren’t so important that it would cause me to groan.

While I was anguishing over this problem in my head, it seemed like Amaniji-
senpai was continuing with her point.

“Furthermore, DevTru Rikka-chan’s golden eye is soooo attractive. It was love

at first sight! The instant I saw it, I wanted to marry her! And, she also looks
extremely lovely wearing an eyepatch! There’s also a role that’s perfect for her. And
that’s why I want to performance a play together with her.”

“…”

I’m certain of it now. Definitely, this girl definitely has a fetish for mismatched
eye colours…!

But Rikka’s mismatched eyes are due to colour contacts.

I’m at a loss as to how to break the truth to her.

Well, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a huge issue, so let’s just ignore it and
ask about the other problem.
 “But, isn’t it the cultural festival in a week? Why would you only ask for help
now? Although, even if you did ask for help earlier, I guess it’d still be quite tough…”

“Hmm… We are asking for a lot. Yeah, guess it’s a natural question to have.”

Upon saying that, Amaniji-senpai frowned for the first time. And then, with a
gloomy tone, she continued:

“We didn’t want to tell you this since we didn’t want any pity, but… ha, looks
like we don’t have a choice. To tell you the truth – including us, our club only has two
members. …And, umm, since our club didn’t get any new members this year, we
were thinking about disbanding the club after this year’s cultural festival.”

Amaniji-senpai chose her words carefully as she slowly continued.

“To conclude – although we decided to stick with the club until the very end, the
number of members was still a problem… We believe that was just before summer
vacation began. Then we discovered Takanashi Rikka-chan. We were running out of
time, and we had to ask you about it, but… “

“… I see,” I gently acknowledged.

That certainly was a bit of a depressing story.

“Since it’s going to be our last play, we were willing to do anything to make it
happen – that’s why we asked you abruptly like that without caring for appearances.
We’ve really sorry about that. So, DevTru Rikka-chan, how about it?”

“…?”

When I turned towards Rikka, I saw that she was looking up at me with watery
eyes, unsure of how she should respond.

I mean, it’s not like I didn’t understand that feeling.

“…Well, Rikka’s busy with various stuff like our class performance…What else
can I say…”

When there’s a long period of silence, it seems that Rikka finds it painful to talk,
so for a short while I’ll talk on her behalf.

I mean, it’s true that Rikka was in fact busy with the dance.
 “Yeah, that’s true. We were well aware that if our request was impossible, we’d
have to give up on it. Since it can’t be helped… Yeah, we’ll figure something out in
the time we have left.”

“Um…”

Rikka opened her mouth.

“What if Yuuta took part…”

“MEEE!?”, I yelled in falsetto in response to the sudden mysterious proposal.

That came out of nowhere! Even though I was the facilitator, in the context of
this conversation I should have been an outsider!

“Ah, ack. No no Rikka. Amaniji-senpai is asking for your help, not mine…”

“Yeah… that’s right. We only need DevTru Rikka-chan’s help…Normal-chan’s

normality… It’s a bit…”

Amaniji-senpai also let out her dissatisfaction with the idea.

While I was briefly happy about being called normal, as expected being called
normal in a derogatory manner diminished that feeling. I mean, anyone would be
unhappy being called normal in such a manner.

Oh, but since I’m just an ordinary person, I guess it was inevitable that I was
called that…

As if to encourage me to lament in such sorrows, a gentle tone rang.

The gentle tone, Chime-san – it was so cruel, as it signalled the start of the
opening ceremony.

“Oh, it’s that time already? Please excuse us! The opening ceremony, it’s
starting! Well then, see ya.”

“Hu…huh?”

And, as we looked on blankly, Amaniji-senpai turned around and left. However,

she didn’t head towards the entrance of the gymnasium – she went in the opposite
direction.
 Where’s she going?

Maybe she’s skipping the opening ceremony…

She did say that she detested being ‘normal’, so maybe that’s why she’s reluctant
to go to the opening ceremony.

That sort of thinking – but since I sort of get it, I’m not going to comment about
it.

“Phew.”

When Amaniji-senpai left, for some reason Rikka let out a sigh of relief.

It was Rikka’s first time meeting her, so I guess she must have been nervous.

“Hm? What’s wrong? Were you nervous?”

“Yuuta, didn’t you notice?”

“Notice?”

“Arc-san… she was a terrifying person. Her aura was overwhelming. …I’m not
sure if I can beat her.”

…Seriously? It was overwhelming to the extent that it made Rikka, who boasts
herself to be the strongest, say those words?

Well, to be fair, it certainly did feel like she had a strange aura.

“But it’s fine. Since my Devilish Truth Stare is still developing, I still have a
slight edge. I definitely won’t lose.”

“…You truly are the strongest.”

“Naturally. Its golden shine won’t lose to the colours of the rainbow.”

The colours of the rainbow, huh.

Amaniji-senpai – a distinct existence.

Prominence personified.
 While I have no idea about who it was that came up with these descriptions, they
truly did hit the bull’s-eye.

Just like Rikka said, she really did feel like a terrifying person.

Her terrifyingness – its more than just her abnormality.

“By the way, Yuuta, what are we going to do about opening ceremony? I think
it’s already begun.”

“Ah…”

Damn it, I completely forgot about that.

Even if we went now, we’d still be late.

However, if we didn’t go, it’d seem like the two of us were playing truant, so the
two of us had no choice but to go and be prepared to get scolded…

However.

I still couldn’t think of an excuse as to why we were late, and even contemplated
about skipping the opening ceremony – while I was anguishing over my
indecisiveness, Rikka tapped me on my shoulder.

Her smiling face was the very image of overflowing self-confidence.

“The Devilish Truth Stare has the ability to rewind time, so we’re fine!”

[1] A stance by Vearn, the main villain from “Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai”.

[2] Pun the reading of sixth sense (第六感). Here, sixth sense, which is read as
dairokykan (だいろくかん) is read here by Yuuta as dairikkan (だいりっかん),
making it a pun on Rikka’s name (六花) since 六 can be read as both roku and ri.

Chapter 3: The Distinctively Strange and Unique Upperclassman

It wasn’t fine.

Obviously.
 After all –

“Ah, opps! Since I was preparing to battle against Arc-san’s aura, my powers
have been exhausted…! The newly acquired ‘Deadline Present’ cannot be used! It’s a
disaster!!”

– Rikka’s new skill exhibition ended like that.

In the end, since two people coming late at the same time was worse than two
people coming late one at a time, we decided to have each of us come in late at
different times.

Rikka went to the opening ceremony, since the person who came in late first
wouldn’t be scolded as harshly, while I headed for our classroom to put away Rikka’s
luggage, the present, before coming in late for the opening ceremony.

Naturally, our homeroom teacher, Tsukumo Nanase (nicknamed Nana-chan),

was really angry with me.

My excuses were useless (I had answered honestly that a certain upperclassman

had held us up), with Nana-chan who truly seemed angry saying: “Is Yuuta-kun part
of the faction who thinks it’s alright to skip the opening ceremony? Sensei doesn’t
even know, and it makes her sad…”

It felt like a ‘sob story’.

On the other hand, she didn’t seem to get angry at all with Rikka.

It seemed that Rikka somehow managed to arrive to the opening ceremony on

time.

Although I was the only one who got scolded, I won’t complain about being
sacrificed, since Rikka didn’t end up being scolded.

Afterwards.

After all that, Amaniji-senpai didn’t come to find us again.

Since we didn’t finish our conversation, we were prepared for her to come find
us right away, but we haven’t heard from her since. Because there was no guarantee
that Amaniji-senpai would come find us again, we decided to head home.
 That’s why, during the school’s half-holiday (it’s a dead phrase), I escorted
Rikka home first as per usual before going home myself, under the scorching sun.

On our way home, we talked a lot about the cultural festival issue, but we didn’t
reach a conclusion and hence the matter was put on hold.

And then, at home.

After finishing my lunch at home alone, I moved to my room.

Since it was so hot, I turned on the air-conditioner and, because I had nothing
better to do, I rolled around on my bed while thinking back on what happened this
morning.

……

…That really was the greatest crisis of my life.

I’m the scumbag who made his upperclassman prostrate before him in front of
the school gates… though that’s not what happened.

Regardless, I hope there’ll be no rumours about it tomorrow.

Ugh, I’m worried…

Speaking about worries, wasn’t there also the cultural festival matter? That also
made me think about when Amaniji-senpai asked us to perform in the play.

It was her absolute last chance – that’s what she said.

I didn’t know what kind of circumstances she was in, but I could tell that it was
really troubling her. While she did prostrate herself before me many times over, it was
still impossible to guess her situation from how she was appealing to me.

That’s to be expected after all – those were my thoughts upon reminiscing about
it.

If there’s something that I could do to help her out, I’d also be willing to help her
out.

However, Rikka’s role in our class dance is a huge issue.

 Since Rikka’s one of our class’ key dancers, I’m not sure if she has time to
practice for a play on top of the dance.

Then again, Rikka herself did say that “I’m already able to perform the dance”.

On top of that, she said that if I wasn’t part of the play then she wouldn’t be
either.

That means… it’s becoming my problem…?

This morning, that upperclassman had absolutely no interest in me at all. Rather,

if anything, she was treating me a bit too coldly.

Even if I do offer to take part in the play, it seems likely she’ll reject my help,
saying something along the lines of ‘I don’t want Normal-chan’.

Besides, even before that, I’m doubtful that I’m even able to take part in
something like a play.

…………

…That’s not true.

While it may seem a bit arrogant of me to say this, but I may have the ability to
act.

To tell you the truth, I used to suffer from chuunibyou.

When I was ill, everything was play-like, and I created and played the role of a
me who wasn’t me, the ‘Dark Flame Master’.

I shouted embarrassing lines without feeling any shame at all.

This lack of shame wasn’t just limited to speech – I even pretended to pull off
impossible actions.

It seems that the past has made me strong.

But, well, it is an embarrassing past though.

“Oh, looks like it really was Onii-chan who came home! You’re early today~!
Welcome home, and I’m home!”
 “Hm? Oh, you’re home. I’m home early since today was the opening ceremony.”

While I was slowly pondered over what happened this morning, it seemed that
before I knew it, Yumeha, the Togashi family’s second daughter and my little sister,
had returned home from the nursery.

I got off the bed and checked the clock.

It seems like I had idled on my bed for an hour… wow.

Shifting my attention to Yumeha, it seems like she came to my room as soon as

she got home, as she still hasn’t finished changing her clothes yet.

She was wearing her gym uniform, which looked easy to move in.

Why was coming to my room the first thing you did?

“Hey! Onii-chan, listen, listen! Just then I saw an amazing person! Super
amazing! Their hair was so amazing that it seemed like they had an ability!”

“…An ability?”

Looks like Yumeha’s steadily being influenced by Rikka…

Then again, it might have been my influence.

Also, hair…?

“I’m sure that she knows Rikka! She could probably even transform like Rikka!
A PrettyCure transformation!”

“Wait, since when could Rikka transform like PrettyCure?”

“She can’t? What about transforming like Ojamajo?”

“How do you know about Ojamajo…?”

I thought that people at Yumeha’s age didn’t know what Ojamajo Doremi was.
Maybe there was a rerun.

“Well, whatever! That’s all! Now then, Yumeha’s going out to play by herself
for a bit!”
 “Oh, okay. Please be careful.”

“Kay!”

And with a smile on her face, Yumeha bounced out of my room.

Well.

Full of energy like always.

I really wonder who she takes after since she grew up to be such a sweet child.
Both mum and dad were natural airheads.

In any case – an amazing person, huh.

Weird, I wonder why I have this really bad premonition. It feels like this
premonition was saying ‘Yumeha might get hurt’.

I didn’t have any sort of ability to detect bad premonitions, but I’ll check on her
just in case.

I’ll go ask Yumeha where she’s going to go play as soon as I get up.

Knock, knock, knock, knock.

There was a muffled sound coming from my room’s glass door.

And if you turned around.

There was an amazing person. Or you could say, there was a dangerous person.

“No no no no no no”

An amazing and dangerous person – Amaniji-senpai was there.

Looking at her, she was still in uniform. It’s been quite some time since the
opening ceremony ended, but it looks like that Amaniji-senpai went directly to my
house instead of going home?

More importantly, why is she here… or rather, or rather!

What are you doing on someone else’s veranda!

 By the way, the Togashi residence is a normal two-storey house. And my room
is on the second floor.

It’s amazing, it’s dangerous.

A lap around’s unbelievable! How did you get up onto the veranda of the second
floor!

She’s not normal!

When Amaniji-senpai saw me, she tightened her innocent expression into a
daring smile similar to the one she wore this morning.

She was looking directly at me.

Her gaze seemed to be telling me to let her in.

No, but well…

Still, I couldn’t just abandon her, so I had no choice but to open the glass door.

It was still hot, and a mild summer breeze blew into the room.

At the same time, Amaniji-senpai took off her shoes and she entered my room.

Then, looking up at me delightfully, with a sweet smile:

“Pardon our intrusion! Hehehe, it’s strange to meet in a place like this!”

…It’s strange in every sense of the word!

I was on the verge of voicing my retort like I usually would, but I ended up
stopping myself. Retorting this upperclassman, evident by what happened this
morning, only derails the conversation. It’s not a hobby of mine to stop myself from
talking.

Still, while Amaniji-senpai did say that she was willing to do anything for her
mysterious play, I thought she didn’t want ‘normal’.

…But she’s trespassed into my room.

“Umm, why are you here?”

 “Eh, because entering through the front door’s normal.”

“That’s not what I was asking about!”

In the end, I still retorted.

A salute to my straight man spirit! No, what did I just do!

I mean, I can’t believe that I’m retorting even in my own house!

“Ah. Our house is on the third floor, but since we’ve been reported to the police
many times now, we have had to restrain ourselves. Sorry, and we don’t mind if you
also speak ill of how miserable it is to yield to the power of the state!”

“Please don’t answer as if you’ve seen through me! …So, how did you make it
up here…?

“With effort? There were quite a few footholds, so we managed.”

“………”

I went to the veranda to check her claim.

Hmm.

Certainly, if she used her feet to hang onto the piping, it’s possible.

But it’s not a method that you’ll normally think of.

How do I put it – it’s making me worried about the security side of things.

A normal girl like this could – wait, a girl who climbs up the piping of a house
wouldn’t be normal.

Hmm?

Right, you wouldn’t normally be climbing up the piping…

Especially in broad daylight. This abnormal person is making me lose my sense

of normality.
 Her trespassing was so abnormal that it became too bothersome to tell her off
about it. I was troubled for a moment about how I should report this to the power of
the state – err, I mean, the police –, but I’ll just let this incident go.

I guess you could say that an incident like this was so shocking to the point that
it was impossible to describe.

However, this person… why did it feel like she’s been looking at me with a
smile the entire time… I’m scared…

“More importantly, how did you know where my house was?”

“We found it on Facebook!”

“I haven’t posted those details on there; you’re really scaring me!”

I’ll never place my personal information on the net that easily!

“Ahaha, looks like you couldn’t tell that it was a joke!”

“No… I knew that you were joking…”

“Besides, we dislike using stuff like Facebook since everyone uses it. We mean,
we’ve still looking for penpals in the reader’s corner of magazines.”

“How are people like you still around!”

“Well, spoiler – if you try your hardest to find out such things at school you’ll
eventually find it. Even without using something like Facebook, it’s easy to get
personal information!”

“And that’s extremely scary… but if that’s the case, wouldn’t it been better if
you checked where Rikka’s house was…?”

“Of course, that was the first thing we searched for. However, her current
address seems to be different from the address we found at school.”

Amaniji-senpai looked a bit puzzled as she replied.

I too was also puzzled by that information.

 Taking into consideration Rikka’s current situation, it didn’t make any sense…
Well, there’s no point thinking about it deeply for now.

Right now, I need to figure out how to deal with this upperclassman.

“So, what are you doing at my house again…?”

“Because it seemed interesting.”

It seemed interesting…

“Is that so… Umm, since my room’s empty and is more or less clean, please feel
free to take a seat.”

Accepting that it can’t be helped, I returned to my room from my veranda,

closing the glass door after I suggested to Amaniji-senpai to take a seat.

However, Amaniji-senpai didn’t sit down; she looked around my room as if she
was evaluating it, and after a small nod she looked at me with what seemed to be a
disappointed expression.

“Hmm, unfortunately your room looks normal?”

“Then what was the kind of room senpai was expecting…?”

“Let’s see, a boy’s room would be more; we imagined that it’d be a room that
was reflective of what you were influenced by. It would be decorated with stuff like
golden dragons and dubious posters. Still, this room’s so unusually clean that it’s to
the point where it’s sort of suspicious.”

‘It’s a room that houses an abnormal secret,’ she softly added.

…She had a keen eye. This room does house an abnormal secret.

There shouldn’t be anyone else apart from Rikka who would come to my room,
but it seems like it’s necessary to rearrange my room so that people won’t get
suspicious.

I’m not sure if Amaniji-senpai has a liking for narrow spaces or not, but during
the time when her expectations were pleasantly shocked, she went and sat in the
corner of my room.
 I mean, I did tell her to take a seat, so it wasn’t a problem.

“By the way, Amaniji-senpai, because of you I was late today…”

“Ah, sorry! If they talk to you about that matter again then you can blame us for
it. Say that there was a strange incident with a strange upperclassman.”

“Eh… you’re actually aware of it?”

I’m speechless. This upperclassman’s too strange.

“Well, whatever, don’t worry about – senpai, where did you end up going? Also,
on that note, isn’t it bad to be doing stuff like playing truant?”

“Rude. We weren’t playing truant. We simply entered from the back and listened
to the ceremony from behind the stage. Well, we also ended up kind of late as well.”

“……”

She was serious.

It was definitely not a normal thing to do… well, if I care too much about what
this upperclassman does, then it’ll only tire me out…

“Err… about why you’re here – it’s about this morning’s request, right?”

“‘Wrong!’ is what we want to say, but you’re right. As per usual, please forgive
us. We’re the worst, aren’t we…. truly, we’ve really sorry.”

Isn’t she apologising too much?

This person, what kind of person is she really…

“We-well, let’s not fuss over strange things like that as well… For some reason
this conversation feels like it’s going to take a while, so I’ll go bring in some tea…”

“Oh? A neglect play[1]! Doing something like abandoning your partner in the
room as if it were natural, that’s definitely not something a normal person can do! Not
bad! Our opinion of you is a little better! Please feel free to do a neglect play!”
 “But that wasn’t my intention at all!? You’re seriously sticking with the
impression that this is a strange place; looks like I can’t leave someone like you in the
corner…”

“That’s right, so let us sit in the centre!”

…It was a leading question!?”

It felt like that magnificent exchange just now was completely calculated.

Perhaps sitting in that corner and repeatedly putting words in my mouth was all
for setting me up to say ‘I can’t leave someone like you in the corner…

I couldn’t guess what the point of it was, or more precisely, what her intentions
were, but was that mentalism just then?

Wow, I’m impressed.

But it was still exhausting.

“Well then… umm, I’ll be doing the neglect play, so please wait a bit for me.”

“Please do not worry. We’ll be diligently waiting in the centre!”

“Haa… thanks for your patience,” I said as I left the room.

Hmm, I’m pretty sure that she’s not going to go vandalise my room, so it should
be fine to head out to the living room for some tea.

I went to the kitchen and took two cups out of the cupboard.

I also took out some rice crackers from the cupboard and barley tea from the
fridge, before heading straight back to my room.

The moment when I got back to my room –

“…What the heck is it that you came here to doooo!?”

– I raised my voice.

Just like she said, Amaniji-senpai was quietly waiting for me in the centre of my
room in a seiza.
 She was diligently waiting for me, but her clothes – she somehow managed to
change from her uniform.

It looked like she was wearing a Gachapin[2] onesie.

“Heh heh heh, We’ve come to win you over, as a monster!!!”

“……………”

I’m just going to completely ignore Amaniji-senpai’s extremely satisfied smile.

Sitting face-to-face, I gently placed the tea and rice crackers that I had prepared
right in front of her.

“Umm… it’s tea. Here you go.”

“Oof, so the two of us going to keep continuing the neglect play. You’re
expecting us to play along now, right?”

Amaniji-senpai’s cheeks were a little red, and her hands were in front of her
chest squirming.

It made me happy since it felt like a small victory.

“Even though we only changed our clothes in a hurry for this… maybe it would
be better to take this off. Hmm…”

“Wa-wait a minute… underneath, your uniform’s underneath, right?”

“Naturally! It’s underwear!”

“Underwear!? Please don’t strip! That’s right, that appearance, it’s extremely
dangerous and is unbelievably out of place here!”

“Ah, really? Great. Yeah, that’s right: it is sort of normal to be naked in your
own home!”

I actually said that it wasn’t normal, but if I actually clarified that then it’d be
problematic, so I killed those words just before they left my mouth.

That was really dangerous.

 “Ah, right. We thought that it wouldn’t be good if Normal-chan came back when
we were still changing my clothes, so we borrowed your closet for a bit. It’s an ex
post facto report, sorry.”

“Not good huh… Well, it is true that you wouldn’t want to be seen while you are
in the middle of changing your clothes. I don’t really mind, so it’s fine.”

“You’re wrong: we’ve not opposed to you watching over the scene of us
changing clothes. It’s just that, it’s sort of normal, Right? It’s a manga trope after all.”

“This world doesn’t have such a trope!”

What kind of trope is that.

I’ve never experienced it before.

“Hahaha, but more importantly! We’ve gotten a bit more interested in Normal-
chan.”

“Hu-huh?”

“Weeell, that set of complete female clothing you own is on a whole another
level! It’s not normal at all! Even we were surprised!”

“Gaaaaaaaaaah!”

Th-that, that was…

Although Rikka went through great lengths to get me to accept those magical
girl transformation goods, since I didn’t know what my family would say if they
found out, I was keeping it sealed in my closet.

This is… even more damaging than the time Rikka found my dark notebook.

It’s a new genre – to be exposed as a crossdresser!

It’s no longer normal to do something like finding the dark notebook!

Ugh…

“Ahaha, don’t make such a miserable face. Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone as
long as you change into those clothes right now!”
 “Is that unconditional!?”

I immediately fell into that sweet trap.

That’s not right, actually – this is a strategy of mine where I quickly take
countermeasures before being threatened.

It’s definitely going to be a big problem if rumours of me being a crossdresser

were to spread.

That’s what I’m convincing myself…!

“Yeah yeah, trust me! It’s because we want to have a special relationship with
you where the two of us share a secret like that!”

“Please don’t phrase it like that! Moreover, I don’t have a habit of cross-
dressing, all right…?”

While giving an explanation like that, I tottered towards the front of my closet to
unleash my sealed treasure – err, I mean, the magical girl transformation goods.

Because it’s a precious present from Rikka, I need to be delicate and careful with
it.

“This was called, ah, having ‘a special fetish’, Normal-chan! A special fetish –
we like the sound of that!”

“Isn’t that something that a pervert would say!?”

“What? Do you think that we’re a pervert?”

“Don’t try to win!”

This person, does she think self-contempt is fun!?

That’s definitely some kind of special fetish!

“Ah, it seems that Normal-chan is normal, and doesn’t have a special fetish like
being watched as he changes? Sorry sorry, We didn’t notice. We’ve turned around, so
go change!”

“Eh? You’re not going to leave the room!?”

 “We love hearing the rustling sound when someone’s changing their clothes.”

“Your special fetishhh!”

Seemingly ignoring my words, Amaniji-senpai was in the centre of my room

with her back facing towards me.

Her leaving – looks like that’s not going to happen.

However, changing clothes right behind a girl’s back… gah.

Still, this situation, it’s strange. It’s not like the words of Amaniji-senpai weren’t
strange, but isn’t the troupe normally the other way around? Well, it’s not like the
reverse was normal either.

But, it seems, today isn’t going to be ‘normal’ at all.

And, while cursing that fact in my heart, I threw away my reluctance and got
changed quickly.

Into the magical girl outfit that I’ve gotten used to by now.

“…Um, it’s okay to turn around now.”

“Yeah, the sound of your clothes rustling was great!”

Turning around, Amaniji-senpai looked in my direction. A boy cosplaying as a

magical girl was face to face with a girl in a monster onesie – it was an extremely
surreal sight.

“Ahaha! It’s great, it’s great! Abnormality suits the two of us!”

“You’re not going to say that normal suits me!?”

“Well, see, we only meant it to as joke, but you really went and did it! Just admit
it – Normal-chan isn’t normal! Our impression of you is rapidly improving!”

“It was a joke!?”

Furthermore, her impression of me was rapidly improving.

I’m not very happy about that…

 “Hmm. We’ve the ones at fault here since we found and opened it without
permission. Still, us acting freely made things proceed in an interesting direction, so
we’re completely satisfied! Come now, let’s talk about this morning’s tale, Yuu-
chan!”

“You’re getting too overfamiliar!”

“Hehe, Yuu-chan. How nice, calling you Yuu-chan feels even more special than
calling you Normal-chan. Since that’s the case, we’ll call you Yuu-chan from now
on!”

“…………”

Looks like my nickname’s ranked up.

Together with my current appearance, and with a name like that, I didn’t know if
I had sublimated this situation and was feeling happy or if this situation was making
me sad.

I mean, to be honest, being called Yuu-chan unexpectedly moved me since I’ve

never had such a cute nickname before.

My usual nicknames were names like ‘Hero’[3] or ‘Geruzoni’…

All of my usual nicknames were strange… let’s not tell Amaniji-senpai about
them.

“Now then.”

Amaniji-senpai carried on with a smile.

“About this morning’s tale – well? What’s DevTru Rikka-chan saying?

“No – especially since we stopped in the middle of the tale.”

“Really.”

Amaniji-senpai didn’t look anxious at all.

I was a little confused, since she seemed completely different from this morning,
where she was extremely passionate about her request. This upperclassman has given
up on her request – such an unlikely scenario’s probably not the case, but even so I’m
doubtful that there’s another explanation.

Even though I only got acquainted with Amaniji-senpai today, but so far, I
couldn’t help but think that she really wasn’t an ordinary person.

“Guess there’s no choice: we’ll go prostrate ourselves to Yuu-chan again

tomorrow.”

“Don’t!”

As expected, Amaniji-senpai tilted her head in response to my reply.

Seeing her tilt her composed face curiously made me feel relieved.

Although I haven’t known her for very long, it was strange that improbable
responses like that felt Amaniji-senpai-like…

“Really? But we were resolving to prostrate ourselves to you every day.”

“A resolution like that should make you waver!”

It’s a terrible resolution.

It’s too M.

“Understood; if that’s what Yuu-chan says, then it can’t be helped. We’ll say
that prostrating was too normal and no longer interesting, and stop doing it.”

“You thought it was interesting…”

It’s only interesting if you say it’s interesting… a person like that isn’t normal.

“Well then, tell us what it is that you wanted of us to do for you! We’ll do
anything!”

“Your intentions haven’t changed….?”

“That’s not it! Since we’ve renting Yuu-chan’s beloved girlfriend, we have to do
what we can to make it up to you!”

“…Oh, then, could you please be normal for the time being?”
 “Sorry, no can do!”

“Your attitude sure changed quickly!”

“Isn’t there anything else? As long as it isn’t normal, we’ll do anything!”

“……No…there’s nothing in particular…”

“No way!? That’s unusual! Anything at all?”

“Anything…huh?”

“Yes, anything! Don’t normal high school boys say things like ‘Yahoo, anything
at all! Nevertheless, for now let’s begin with baking a naan[4]!’ when that’s the
case?”

“Please apologise to all the high school boys around the world!”

The heck, that seems to be a boy with a low level of intelligence.

He’s the opposite of normal.

“We see, we see. Yuu-chan’s quite idiosyncratic! Well, whatever, you don’t
need to think of something right away. Rather, just tell when you stumble across some
weird idea. It has to be something that other people won’t do though – apologies for
not being able to do normal things.”

Amaniji-senpai said all of that at once, with no hesitation at all in her words.

She seriously didn’t hesitate at all.

“And, because we’re willing to do anything for Yuu-chan, we want Yuu-chan to

take part in the play as well!”

“Take part in the play…?”

Ahhh… I see. Win me over.

I forgot about those words since at that time I was completely ignoring her, but it
seems like they were Amaniji-senpai’s original intention for coming to my house.

In that sense, the conversation’s been progressing extremely smoothly.

 After all, Rikka did say that she wouldn’t take part in the play if I wasn’t in it.

“Umm… do you not want to?”

“It’s not that that I don’t want to, but… Amaniji-senpai, wasn’t your aim to have
only Rikka take part in the play?”

“To be frank, that was our plan at first. Winning you over was solely for the sake
of having DevTru Rikka-chan, but… but now, we really want Yuu-chan to take part
too! Yuu-chan was more eccentric than we imagined! As expected of DevTru Rikka-
chan’s boyfriend! You look great in female clothes!”

“Ugh…!”

I couldn’t say anything in response to that.

My face turned completely red; I was at a complete loss at what to do.

“Ahaha, looks like praising you so much like that made you embarrassed about
being embarrassed!”

“Wrong! Also, it didn’t feel like you were praising me at all!?”

“You’re embarrassed again! Yeah, without a doubt, we definitely want Yuu-chan

to take part too.”

“…Um, although I’m a bit late in saying this, but wouldn’t it be better to ask
people like your friends instead of Rikka and I –”

“Nope, that’s impossible.”

Amaniji-senpai spoke over me, with “impossible” being said in a flat tone.

I didn’t mean to say something like ‘it would be better to ask your friends’
without any qualms.

I was feeling remorseful for saying something unpleasant like that, but Amaniji-
senpai didn’t look unhappy at all. Her facial expression was the same as before – no,
her facial expression was much brighter than before.
 “See, it’s because of our selfishness. Since we’re part of the ‘Eccentric Drama
Club’. If we had to do something with others, we’d prefer to do it with other eccentric
people. That’s why it has to be DevTru Rikka-chan and Yuu-chan!”

And just like that, smiling as she talked, she changed the subject to something
lighter.

I felt a little relieved about the situation. However –

“Ha… but seriously, why Rikka? It doesn’t seem like the two of you have talked
with each other before, and to say that she’s strange based on looks alone is…”

I’ve been curious about this for a long time now.

I think I’ve been curious ever since Amaniji-senpai said ‘it has to be Rikka’.
Even though she did say, during this morning’s incident, that she decided on Rikka
based on her unique appearance, nevertheless that still didn’t feel like a reason to stick
with Rikka.

“…Yuu-chan, DevTru Rikka-chan – what do you think of Rikka-chan?

“Eh?”

“And, not from the viewpoint of a boyfriend – we’re asking how Yuu-chan sees
DevTru Rikka-chan.”

“…Err, umm, she’s a little peculiar –”

“Yeah, that!”, Amaniji-senpai said while pointing at me. And smiling.

“Yes, anyone who saw her would think that she’s extremely eccentric. We used
our rule of thumb, ‘cannot do normal’, to tell that she wasn’t normal.”

“………”

“Oh, sorry, we didn’t mean that in a bad way. Rather, we meant it as a very great
compliment. And that’s exactly why we wanted grow closer to DevTru Rikka-chan.
We also have ulterior motives for doing so too.”

“… I absolutely won’t hand Rikka over.”

“Aha, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
 “Ugh… you’re laughing too much…”

“Ahaha, no, ah, sorry sorry. Hehe, still, Yuu-chan said that pretty cutely.
Normally, you don’t say something like that to a woman with ulterior motives: it’s too
strange!”

…Hmm, now that you mention it that might be true.

But to be fair, there has been some charming people around me lately. As a
result, I may have unconsciously responded a little too sensitively.

“Well, that’s why it would be no good if it wasn’t DevTru Rikka-chan. In that

sense, if you get what we mean, we were pleased about being out of luck.”

“Yeah, I can vaguely understand what Amaniji-senpai’s trying to say.”

Certainly, Rikka may be ‘abnormal’.

At the very beginning, I too was also charmed by that kind of atmosphere. She
was different from others – that is, she was a chuunibyou patient.

“By out of luck, we mean that there were no interesting people around me. See,
that’s the reason why our club has so few members.”

“…Is that so?”

Well, if there was a person who wanted to join the same club that Amaniji-
senpai is in, they’d probably have quite the personality.

I was wondering if such a person could even exist, but then I remembered that
I’ve already been told that there was another member. I’m a bit interested about the
type of person they were.

I’m certain, however, that they were a person similar to Amaniji-senpai.

“So, how about it? Can the two of you take part together?”

“…Hmm.”

I didn’t have a reason to refuse. However, I didn’t have an obligation to help

either.
 Regardless, at any rate, right before my eyes was a troubled person, and if I can
help – and I think my poor abilities are sufficient enough to help – then I should help.

However, if I go help Amaniji-senpai, then Rikka would likely come help with
the play too.

After all, Rikka did say something along those lines this morning.

Since that’s the case, then there still was the issue of Rikka’s Cultural Festival
workload to consider.

It felt too early to give an answer right now.

“Um, I don’t have a problem in helping – Rikka might though, do you mind if I
double-check with her about this?”

“Really? You’re helping!?”

“Well, I still haven’t decided yet… I should be able to give you an answer,
but…”

“Yeah! That’s fine, thanks! Yuu-chan, you’re a lifesaver! Then tomorrow, come
to the club room!”

Extremely moved, Amaniji-senpai used both hands to take my right hand,

grasping my hand tightly.

I could tell that she definitely wasn’t feeling a ‘normal’ type of joy, but since she
was so happy it seems that some of that happiness passed onto me.

My face broke into a smile by itself.

“It’s still a bit early to say, but for time the being looks like the play’s going to
happen. To be completely honest, we really wanted another person for the play, but oh
well. Guess it can’t be helped.”

“One more?”

“Yeah, since it’s meant to be a play staring five people. However, although it’s
difficult, it’s possible to perform the play with three people. That’s why, at the very
least, we needed to have three actors.”
 Another person – huh?

Another interesting person – another eccentric person.

Although Amaniji-senpai thinks that there isn’t anyone else who would qualify
as interesting, there’s one person that comes to my mind that she’ll certainly be
satisfied with.

It feels like I can even hear her voice going ‘nyahahahaha’.

Anyway, it seems that Amaniji-senpai hasn’t noticed her yet.

If she had, she definitely would have approached her already.

She had a presence that was even more overwhelming than Rikka’s.

“Um, if we are looking for one more person to help – I know someone who you
would find interesting… do you want me to ask?”

“Eh, really? There’s another person? Our observation was lacking?”

“Yes, it’s someone who had just transferred recently, but I can guarantee that it’s
someone you’ll find interesting. I’m not sure if they’ll be willing to help, but if
Amaniji-senpai’s good with it then I’ll talk to them about it.”

My chest puffed out a little as I answered with confidence.

Agreeing with what I said, Amaniji-senpai nodded vigorously, bashfully

showing a look of relief.

“Hmm. If it’s someone that Yuu-chan recommends, they’ll surely be great!

However, if they fail to match our expectations on the day we meet, we’d reject them
on the spot. Is that okay with you?

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m certain that they’ll be able to match your expectations.”

“By the way, is that person a girl?”

“Eh? Oh, yes, that person’s a girl.”

“………”
 It became silent again. Suddenly, the atmosphere felt tense.

Did I say something bad…?

While I was feeling unnerved by an atmosphere like that, Amaniji-senpai said

something to me with a playful expression.

As if it was something that really amusing to make fun of.

Something grand to make fun of.

“Hasn’t it been a while since you started dating? There’s another girl in the
picture, it’s making my heart throb. A special fetish? Are we not right? Most couples
are highly likely to break up after being together for around three to six months!”

[1] BDSM, where you neglect your partner.

[2] The mascot of a popular children’s program Hirake! Ponkiki.

[3] In case it wasn’t clear, Hero, or Yuusha (勇者) is a pun on Yuuta’s (勇太) name.

[4] Oven-baked flatbread, originated from Asia.

Chapter 4: Eccentric Drama Club

“By the way, Yuuta. Recently it’s been a bit formulaic –”

“We are!?”

Don’t just say something sad like that without any warning! I’m on the verge of
tears here!

Yesterday, Amaniji-senpai said that the dangerous time-period for couples was
three to six months after they started dating, right!? I don’t know if that was true or
not since this is my first-time dating, but perhaps I was the only one who thought that
we were progressing smoothly!?

Afterwards.

In other words, it was right after Amaniji-senpai made fun of me yesterday.

Satisfied with that, Amaniji-senpai said “I’ve stayed for way too long, sorry! Well
then, see you later!” in a hurry and went home.
 Since I asked her to, she left through the front door.

And now, back to the present – lunch time.

It was right in the middle of lunch time, and it was just the two of us on the
school’s rooftop.

Incidentally, about this rooftop – while there was the possibility of someone else
intruding, since it was hot on the rooftop it seemed that only people with strange tastes
(I guess we were the sort of weird people who would come up here) would come up
here; so far, we still haven’t met anyone else on this rooftop. As a result, I guess you
could call it something like a private space for the two of us.

The azure sky – since the seasons had changed, maybe I should be calling it the
autumnal sky instead.

Nevertheless, although it was September, the blazing sun was still scorching
down on us.

In order to avoid such a hell, we were hiding in the shade, and while we were
sitting on the ground eating our bentos, having our usual fun whimsical conversations,
there was suddenly some sad news from Rikka.

I think there were some tears in my eyes.

“You’re completely wrong.”

Rikka-san had a sullen face. She was really angry.

Although she won’t tell me why, recently she’s been wearing the eyepatch a lot
again. As a result, I could only check with one of her eyes, but that left eye of hers
was staring at me with a cold gaze.

So I was wrong… I’m glad, really glad…

“I’m sorry… I jumped to conclusions. …So, what’s become formulaic?”

“The recent Aggressive Aliens ☆ Secret Manual.”

In case you didn’t know, it was Rikka’s favourite magazine to read.

 Ever since that one time when Yumeha borrowed it, she’s been pestering me to
“borrow it againnn”, giving me the opportunity to read the following publications. I
certainly couldn’t deny the feeling that the content was getting repetitive.

Well, since it’s meant to be about stuff that you don’t know about aliens, I guess
it’s understandable that there’ll be less and less things to write about.

“I want them to introduce more new kinds of aliens.”

“New kind of aliens…? Like…?”

“Recently there has been lots of anime about various aliens coming to Japan.
They should introduce those.”

“If they did that, wouldn’t it just become an ordinary anime magazine!?”

It’s M*gami Magazine![1] Or NyanT*PE![2] …Its secret is that all the aliens are
pretty girls.

“I want to see lots of new kinds of aliens! Yuuta, what can you share?”

“Don’t talk as if I have some kind of secret tool that I can freely use! It’s
impossible after all!”

“Oof… Looks like it can’t be helped. Yuuta, let’s summon one together!”

“You can summon aliens!?”

But I thought that aliens only come for stuff like invasion or sightseeing. They’re
not demons… But hey, maybe you could summon something alien-like.

If that’s the case, then at least we’ll be able to communicate with it.

“Elohim Essaim, Elohim Essaim[3].”

“Don’t cast the Baranga Baranga[4] spell! And that summons a demon!”

“Oof. Alright then, in that case – Yuuta, you must immediately do the alien-
summoning dance.”

“…Wait, don’t you know? I can’t dance at all…”

 “Is that so… Yuuta can’t even do the first part of radio calisthenics… Even
though you’re the Demon King, how regrettable…”

…Don’t speak with such a dejected tone, it’s making me feel down.

I mean, that’s calisthenics, not dancing.

Moreover, I’m able to do radio calisthenics up to the second part!

“Wait, if it’s a dance, wouldn’t it be better if you did it since you’re skilled at
dancing? Ah, rather, I want to see you perform the dance for the cultural festival!”

When I said that, Rikka’s body twitched, and was full of confidence as she
looked towards me with her usual triumphant look.

Looking as if she was ready to show off what she could do, Rikka put her half-
eaten bento down, quickly stood up and took an imposing stance right in front of me.

“Guess it can’t be helped. This is special, for Yuuta only.”

Saying that, she took half a step back and did a spin. Naturally, it was a
horizontal spin. At that instant, her skirt gently floated in the air– but I couldn’t see
that forbidden secret part of hers. Regardless, I was excited.

And then, even though there was no music, she captivated me with – I mean,
performed for me – that cute dance of hers.

Rikka had the stage to herself – both figuratively and literally.

Even though I knew that, I was still impressed by her movements.

In fact, it felt that she was even on the same level as the dance club. Well, that
might just be due to my bias though.

As she finished a portion of the dance without breaking a sweat, Rikka had a
huge smile on her face. I gave a round of applause to Rikka as well.

“How was it? My wild war dance?”

“Eh… I liked it…?”

 I’m not certain about why she’s happy – was it because she was able to perform
the dance for me, or was it because she was able to use a cool phrase like that…

Clearing my throat, I gave my revised opinion.

“I mean, yeah, it was the strongest! Have you really mastered the dance
already?”

“Naturally! It’s already perfect. I’m able to master anything instantly by using
the power of the Devilish Truth Stare. In addition, the Devilish Truth Stare also has
the ability to make an exact copy of anything. It can even freely steal the abilities of
my enemies. Haaaaa, Dark Phoenix Blazing Wave!”

“Shichimiya’s technique has already been stolen!?”

“I can also use this. Flames of love!”

“Ple, please don’t use that readily…”

It wasn’t something that can be used freely.

It’s an ability that potentially exceeds the power of the Devilish Truth Stare…

Then again, Devilish Truth Stare: it can manipulate the five elements,
manipulate gravity, use telekinesis, and could seemingly manipulate fate. And now
that I think about it, yesterday she told me that it could also manipulate time. On top
of that, she seemed to have something like a nullify ability nullification ability
(despite bringing it up, I’m not quite sure what that ability is either) – its setting as the
strongest wasn’t just for show.

Anyway, the class performance – looks like it’s already perfect on the dance
front.

If Rikka was going to be burdened by the request, while I would feel bad for
Amaniji-senpai, I was intending to refuse, but looks like there may be no need to
worry about that.

Well, I still have to ask Rikka about it since I’m not certain if she’ll help until I
ask properly. For now, I’ll start by gently bringing up the subject.

“Say, about what we talked about yesterday –”

 “What we talked about yesterday? You mean about how Yuuta cried after
reading Gon, the Little Fox[5]?”

“Let’s not talk about thaaat!”

Even though I did cry after reading it – even though it happened!

I mean, why did you suddenly bring that up!?

“I also cried yesterday. I had a terrible dream where Mori-sama was using my
Devilish Truth Stare.”

“…That certainly is a terrible dream to have!”

“Yeah, and when I thought that it really happened… I was scared and wondered
if I should call Yuuta, but thought that it would be hard for you to come to my house
at 2 o’clock in the middle of the night… so I endured it.”

“But I would go!? Even if it was at 2 o’clock I’d go!?”

“Ooh, as expected of the King of the Night! Just hearing it makes me feel
relieved.”

“No no, that’s not it… Look, yesterday, we talked about the cultural festival,
didn’t we?”

“The cultural festival? Ah, you mean about how Yuuta was troubled about which
Batoen[6] to use in the Batoen tournament?”

“But there’s no tournament like that scheduled at our cultural festival!?”

I’ve never seen a Batoen before though. Or rather, why do you know about battle
pencils?

Regardless, it seems pretty plain for a tournament…

“Hmm? …Maybe that was a dream then?”

“Rikka, what kind of incredible dreams are you having… Look, it’s about the
play.”

“Play? Ah, Arc-san.”

 Rikka had a look which implied that she finally knew (it seemed that she only
just remembered) what I was talking about.

I thought that her expression was on purpose since she was still playing the
funny man, but it seemed that she was being serious.

“How did you find Arc-san?”

“Well, you see, yesterday Arc-san – Amaniji-senpai – abruptly came up into my

room.”

Literally. Abruptly came up. Will this fact be conveyed to Rikka?

“Abruptly came up into Yuuta’s room!? Arc-san has the ability to fly!?”

“It got conveyed!”

“As expected of Arc-san…! I don’t have the ability to fly… looks like I can’t be
Yuuta’s swallow after all…?”

“Weren’t you lavished with abilities just now!? Well… it’s fine, since Rikka’s
other abilities are absolutely overwhelming…”

“Ooh! Yeah, I’ll believe in your words Yuuta! By the way, why did Arc-san go
to your house? Ah!? Maybe she’s the enemy!?”

“No, no, she’s definitely not the enemy. At the very least, she doesn’t seem like
a bad person.”

But then again, I’m not certain about that.

Although it was only based on my intuition, I couldn’t believe that someone with
such an easy-going personality would be a bad person. Then again, I couldn’t say that
she was a good person either.

If I had to be precise, I’d say that she’s a strange person.

“So why Yuuta’s house?”

“Umm, she came to win me over I guess.”

“A monster!? She’s the enemy after all!?”

 “We already did that joke yesterday!”

Seems like Rikka’s thought process was similar to Amaniji-senpai’s.

Actually, would it be better to say that they have similar tastes instead? If that’s
the case, then I too also have similar tastes to Amaniji-senpai…

“Anyways, it’s about the play – she came to ask about it once again. So, what are
your thoughts, Rikka?”

As I asked her about it, Rikka had a confused expression on her face. She let out
a small “hmm”.

“There’s no problem about it on my end. On the dance front, I’m fine. However,
why me?”

“Hmm, well Amaniji-senpai did say that she thinks your personality is rather
unique.”

“…Unique? But I’m normal…?”, said Rikka as she tilted her head slightly,
seeming as if she was questioning that conclusion.

However, “I’m normal” – for Amaniji-senpai, it felt like the exact opposite is
true.

I also think that Rikka is one of the most unique people I know. I mean, among
my acquaintances she’d be competing for first or second place in terms of
eccentricity. By the way, the other person’s Shichimiya.

I’m not sure if it’s because they are chuunibyou patients, but their measure of
what’s eccentric is different from other people’s.

However, I’m certain that they believe themselves to be normal. While they
might think that they’re doing something normally, to others it looks extremely
unique.

Then again.

For Amaniji-senpai, they definitely wouldn’t be categorised as ‘normal’.

Excessive acting – thinking back on what happened yesterday, adopting a

fictional persona certainly is very similar to playing the leading role in a play.
 In some respects, it was like you were showing off how unique you were
compared to everyone else –

“By the way, Yuuta – are you going to help out as well?”

Rikka asked me a question, interrupting my thoughts.

Since my thoughts were interrupted so abruptly, I was a little shocked, leading

me to be a little jittery in my reply.

“Eh, ah, yeah. But I’m only helping out if Rikka’s helping out as well.”

“I see. Yeah, that is a very Yuuta-like thing to do. The King’s willing to do
anything to gain a servant. Looks like Yuuta’s reverting back to being the type of
Demon King that is kind to his subjects.”

“I-I’m regressing!?”

“To be honest, I’m also reverting back to being the wielder of the Devilish Truth
Stare.”

It’s another new setting! I mean, didn’t you inherit it from your father!?

Looks like I won’t be able to grasp the setting anytime soon.

“Haa. Don’t misunderstand. Even though it is a regression, the inheritance of the

Devilish Truth Stare is hereditary.”

“……”

“… I just wanted to try using that explanation for a bit…”

It was being tsunshun in a different way[7]. Trying being tsun-like, and you’ll
understand that feeling depressed makes it a different personality! YES, MANIAC![8]

“We-well, but remember that I’m only helping if Rikka’s helping too.”

“I’ll do it too! Since Yuuta’s said he’ll help, I’ll do it too! It’s only natural since
you’re my contractee.”

“O, oh.”
 It was quite rare for Rikka to press me like that with such a menacing attitude.

Then again, maybe she was burning with jealously since I already planned on
helping.

Jealously – while I’m happy that she feels that way, but since we’ve already
been in a quarrel due to it before I have to properly explain the situation so that she
doesn’t misunderstand me.

Yeah, I absolutely have to make sure that I’ve explained it well.

Explaining the situation – but I can’t really do that without first telling Rikka
about Shichimiya’s and her role in the play.

Ever since that incident, Rikka hasn’t shown anything like jealously at all –
rather, the two of them are on very good terms with each other.

Due to that, I’m not particularly anxious about it, but it’s probably still better to
tell her now rather than later.

“Oh, so we’re both helping then. Ah, I’m not certain, but Shichimiya might be
helping out as well.”

“Sofia as well?”

“Yeah, since Amaniji-senpai said that in addition to both you and me, she
wanted to have one more person. And because Shichimiya’s the only who could meet
Amaniji-senpai’s demands, I was planning on asking her afterwards to help out.”

“I see. Sofia and the play – yeah, seems like it’s going to be fun!”, replied Rikka,
who was in high spirits.

Seems like I was worried about nothing. I mean, Rikka saying “seems like it’s
going to be fun” shows just how close the two of them have gotten, which makes me
happy.

“Well then, for now, how about we go visit Amaniji-senpai after school today?”

“Understood.”

And with a nod, Rikka finally returned back to her spot right next to me.
 After that, she finished off her bento’s side dish in one mouthful before
immediately turning straight towards me, staring into my eyes with a serious
expression on her face.

“By the way Yuuta. I believe it’s necessary for you to explain what happened
yesterday in a little more detail. First of all, why Yuuta’s place? I’m sure that there
were other methods though? She’s the enemy after all?”

…Even though I’ve already said this before, but it seems like Rikka’s feeling
quite jealous – on one hand, it makes me feel happy; on the other hand, it’s making
me swear once again to try and not give off the wrong impression.

[1] Megami Magazine

[2] NyanTYPE.

[3] Originally from the Grand Grimoire, also known as The Red Dragon. Made
popular in Japan by the manga series Akuma-kun. Used to summon demons.

[4] Also a reference to Akuma-kun. Still about summoning demons.

[5] A Japanese children’s story about the life of a little fox called Gon.

[6] Batoen (バトエン) is short for Battle Pencil, a sort of trading card game but with
pencils. The abbreviation of Batoen is used by the Square Enix version of the game.

[7] Tsunshun (ツンしゅん), a character archetype similar to a tsundere, but rather

than warming up to others later they get sad later about their actions. Reference to Inu
x Boku SS.

[8] Also a reference to Inu x Boku SS. Said as a catchphrase of one of the characters
when she sees something arousing.

It was after school.

I was by myself, heading to class 1-3 to visit Shichimiya.

 Although Rikka said, “I’ll go with you”, I had Rikka stay at the classroom since
whenever the two of them meet, it creates a mysterious space where a battle unfolds,
derailing the conversation.

Class 1-3.

I didn’t have a friend who I could ask about Shichimiya’s whereabouts since I
don’t know anyone else in that class (well, I wasn’t friends with anyone in the other
classes either, so it’s not just limited to class 1-3…), so I was checking whether
Shichimiya was here or not from outside the classroom.

In the classroom, there were a few girls who stayed behind, but no Shichimiya.

Looks like class 1-3 wasn’t one of the classes who had lots of people stay behind
after school to help with the cultural festival preparations.

Since that’s the case, I’m guessing that Shichimiya’s already gone home as well.

I actually wanted to talk to her in person about it, but it looks like that’s
impossible.

I pulled out my cellphone from my pocket and called Shichimiya.

Speaking of Shichimiya’s cellphone – and don’t criticise me for calling it that,

I’m well aware that it’s more accurate to call it a smartphone – this was the first time
I’ve called her number since she gave it to me.

Since this is my first time calling her, I’m a bit nervous.

Even though smartphones were spreading at an abnormal rate, I’ll remain a

believer of gara-keis[1] until the very end!” was the type of worthless chuuni thoughts
I was having as I made the call. It only rang once.

It seems that I was connected instantly.

“Ah, hey –”

“Nyahahahaha, O K ☆”

…The call ended.

 Wait, wait, even if you were mimicking someone, to suddenly cut the call off
like that… D-does, does she hate me?

That’d make me really sad…

I thought about emailing her about the matter, but I decided, as I prepared to feel
sad again, to give her another call instead – at that moment.

“My dark scarf is charged with magic power – it’s glistering with the destructive
energy of the Demon Duchess! As you wished, the Magical Demon Duchess, Sofia-
chan, is here!”

Standing behind me with her arms crossed in a daunting pose, all the while
laughing “nyahahahaha”, Shichimiya made her speech. When did she…

More importantly, I’m a bit concerned about how others would see this.

Even though it’s true that it’s noisier than how it usually is after school since
most classes were busy preparing for the cultural festival, saying something like that
in such a loud voice would still gather the attention of everyone around us.

Well, whatever… I’m already used to things like that by now.

“Since when did you get there…?”

“What a foolish question, Hero. I’m always by your side.”

“What a cool line… wait, no, that’s not it. Why did you hang up on me? It gave
me quite the shock.”

“Hero, it’s not like that at all. Simply knowing that you’re calling for me is
enough. In fact, you don’t even have to use your phone – even just wishing “help!” in
your heart is enough to make me come right away.”

“Doesn’t that make you the hero then!?”

Sigh.

Shichimiya Satone – she was still as cool as ever.

 And as usual, her condition as a chuuninyou patient was in no way inferior to
Rikka’s …I honestly believe that Shichimiya’s the ultimate type of chuunibyou
patient.

Being self-aware of having chuunibyou, yet persisting with it.

That’s why I’m convinced that she could change even the impossible.

While the basis of my confidence happened to be really evil-eye chuunibyou-

like, but if she was going to change something, you would probably be able to feel the
enormous power that she’ll be pouring into the change.

Undoubtedly, she’s the sort of person who would leave her name behind in the
world when she passes away.

Even though Shichimiya’s only transferred in recently, she seems to already be

fitting in with the rest of the class.

In the olden days, she was fine with being a loner, but it seems that’s no longer
the case anymore.

Since I was only familiar with how she was like in her first year of middle
school, I’m not sure what caused her to change, but I think that it’s good that she did.

Maybe meeting Nibutani and me had something to do with it. If that’s the case,
then I’m glad we met.

‘My school life’s a lot of fun’ was the sort of feeling I got from Shichimiya now.

Speaking of change, Shichimiya’s uniform, like Rikka’s, was remodelled.

I’m surrounded by people with remodelled uniforms. It’s to the point where I’m
worried about how a particular disciplinary member would see this.

In addition, although it’s still hot, she’s wearing a black scarf.

Needless to say, it’s because she thinks it’s cool.

Well, she’s probably fine with wearing it in this type of weather. One time, when
I asked her if she felt hot wearing that, she replied: “Hot? Nyahaha~, what a foolish
question, it’s actually rather refreshing to wear. My heart which loves the world is a
million degrees after all~☆”
 Seriously, she’s more of a hero than I am.

“Anyways, Hero. What exactly is it that you wanted me to help you with? Well,
then again, even without knowing what it’s about I’m already more or less willing to
help Hero out.”

“I’m really grateful about the fact that you’re already willing to help me out, but
I… I’m pretty sure that I haven’t asked for you to help me out yet.”

“Hm? But it could only be a call for help if Hero was trying to contact me so
urgently.”

What a cool line.

However, if that’s the case then it means I can’t just casually call Shichimiya…

“That’s not true, but, well, you’re right about me needing help. If it’s okay with
you, I’d like for you to help me out for a bit. By the way Shichimiya, what’s your
class doing for the cultural festival? It doesn’t seem like there’s any sort of
preparation going on for it.

“What’s my class doing? My class is the only one in our year level that’s doing a
food stall. Preparations for it will probably start right before the cultural festival
begins.”

“Eh, so that’s what your class is doing. What are you going to sell at your food
stall?”

“We’ll be making parfaits, sundaes, Manga Time Ki*ra, stuff like that[2]. Hm?
Is there something wrong with that?”

“If there’s nothing wrong, doesn’t that mean that you’re just selling regular
magazines!?”

“Nyahaha, thanks for the retort. It was a slip of the tongue, I meant to say crepe
☆”

“It was a slip of the tongue… Umm, so you’ll only be busy on the day of the
cultural festival, right?”

“Yep, that’s right! By the way, since I’ll only be transformed as the Magical
Demon Duchess to serve parfaits for only a short while, please come visit me then!”
 “Oh, of course I’ll come over! I want to eat the parfait!”

“Nyahaha, looks like Hero’s still got a sweet tooth. Yep, Hero’s sweet!”

“Wait, isn’t the meaning completely different if you phrase it like that…?”

There doesn’t seem like there’s much of a correlation between liking sweet
things and being a sweet person…

Me… I wonder if I’m sweet.

“Anyways, you probably want to hear a bit more about the request – ah, but if
you want to refuse, please feel free to do so, it’s not a –”

“It’s okay. I definitely won’t refuse ☆”

“O, oh. Thanks. Err, let’s see, a certain upperclassman of mine wants to perform
a play for the cultural festival, but since there aren’t enough actors, I was wondering if
you could lend a hand. So that’s why, Shichimiya, I’m asking if it’s you could help
her out.”

“There aren’t enough actors… I see. Nyahaha, giving me a request like that feels
a bit off! It’s too easy. Since it was a request from Hero, I was expecting it to be about
saving the world, or something like that.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk”, said Shichimiya as she wagged her finger with a triumphant look
on her face.

…Then again, it’s true that if she’s able to do something like that, then
something like acting should be a cinch.

Still, if I asked you to then the world will be saved, huh.

But, then again, since it’s Shichimiya, it’d end up being something like
sacrificing herself to save the world, so I can’t really ask that of her.

If such a time does come, then I’d save the world together with her.

After all, there’s no reason to not save the world.

“I see, so you’re willing to help out; that’s good to hear. In that case, let’s go
greet my upperclassman together. I was planning on visiting her place now anyway.”
 “Oh, please wait a minute.”

Right as I pivoted around and I started walking, Shichimiya suddenly grasped

onto the hem of my uniform.

Since my uniform was being pulled, I turned around.

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Umm… even if we don’t hurry, it should be fine, right? Nyahahahaha: after all,
Hero, you don’t usually come to my class.”

“Is, is that so?”

Although what she said was troubling, it was true.

Normally, breaks between classes are for moving between classrooms. And if
there was no need to change classrooms, then I usually chat with someone like Rikka
or Isshiki.

In addition, since we’re in different classes, it’s a bit hard to just go in like that.

But, then again, she always comes to my class to have a chat with me.

“That’s, that’s right …why, my friend, you coming over to talk about stuff such
as plans for world domination or BanBan[3] would be like a dream come true!”

“Shichimiya, what exactly is it that you want to do with the world…?”

Please be clear about whether you wanted to save or conquer the world.

…Well, putting that aside.

I noticed. No – that’s a bad way of putting it.

I didn’t just notice it, I’ve already noticed it. I couldn’t have not noticed it.

That Shichimiya’s smile was a façade masking her feeling of awkwardness.

I think that it was good that I noticed.

 If I didn’t know why she may have been feeling awkward, then I probably
wouldn’t have noticed it.

I couldn’t completely fathom what she was feeling, so I might be slightly off the
mark, but I think I can sort of imagine what she’s feeling.

That is, a feeling of awkwardness as a result of being recently rejected by me in

a rather grandiose way.

Between the two of us – there’s this subtle sense of distance.

That’s why I wasn’t sure about how I should act around her.

I mean, I might be overthinking things.

Still, I definitely didn’t want to trample over Shichimiya’s feelings for a second
time.

Because of all that – I contacted Shichimiya normally.

I contacted Shichimiya, who couldn’t help but smile despite feeling troubled,
normally.

I don’t know if that was the right thing to do. It may have just been my ego.

I mean, I don’t even know what Shichimiya thinks of me now.

Still, for Shichimiya and I – I want us to always be happy when we are together.

“Well, in that case, let’s talk about how we can save the world, since I have no
interest in conquering it.”

“Nyahaha~, I’m always available for a consultation! …Yeah, in that case, I too
will also get into chat-time mode! Come now, it’s time to chat!”

“……”

Looks like she really wanted to just have a chat…

No no, that can’t be right. It’s definitely Shichimiya attempt of trying to deal
with this awkward mood, or something like that.
 “Oh, right, on the topic of protecting the world, that reminds me: I’m pretty
certain that Jeanne d’Arc had a severe case of chuunibyou!”

“Hey, apologize to Jeanne d’Arc-san!”

What are you saying all of a sudden!? That’s how you start a conversation!?

Still, the topic was a bit interesting…

“No, you got it wrong, I really admire Jeanne d’Arc! Didn’t you know, Hero?
That Jeanne d’Arc was a saint? A messiah? That her stylish alias was ‘The Maid of
Orléans’?”

“That certainly does sound a great deal like the vocabulary of a chuunibyou
patient! But Jeanne-san never referred to herself like that, right!?”

“Quite the contrary! And she could even listen to the archangel’s voice! She’s
cool!”

“Urgh… that really is chuuni-ish!”

“And she’s a Valkyrie! She’s super cool!”

“Eh…? Now that you mention it… it seems like that’s true… I’ve only know
about it from social studies classes, so I’m not too familiar with the fine detail, but to
disguise herself as a man in order to save Orléans – she really does seem like an
amazing person…!”

“And in her last moments she was seen as a witch – well, she probably wasn’t
very delighted about it, but it once again makes me think that she’s cool! A hero
who’s seen as a witch: that’s just like a Magical Demon Duchess!”

“No, I don’t think she used magic…”

I couldn’t stop myself from groaning that small retort.

No, there’s still the matter of treating a hero of the past as a chuunibyou patient,
but I guess someone with chuunibyou would definitely interpret it as a luscious
setting.

“However, it is sad that she was treated like a heretic.”

 “Yeah, it definitely was.”

A heretic – a distinct existence, right?

For some reason, when I heard the word heretic, I thought of Amaniji-senpai.

But, for her, it feels like she wants to be known as a heretic. I wonder why?

“By the way, Hero: this isn’t related to our chat just now, but who exactly is this
upperclassman? What’s the story behind her suddenly appearing and asking you for
help?”

“Oh, I haven’t told you about her yet. I actually don’t know her all that well.
Still, since you’ve just transferred, I wonder if you’ve seen her yet? The
upperclassman who’s a year level above us who’s known as Rainbow-senpai –”

“Ah, I’ve seen her. Her aura was terrifying. Since I didn’t know what would
happen if I saw such an aura up-close, I’ve been cautious of her and have only seen
her from afar.”

“Is her aura really that terrifying…?”

It feels fictitious that ability users are able to detect auras.

However, Rikka did say something along those lines as well. Seems like it’s
something that only another ability user would understand.

“Well, since you’ve already seen her before, it makes explaining things easier.
That person – she’s Amaniji-senpai. At first, she only planned on asking Rikka for
help, and I get the impression that she went from place to place until she finally ended
up at my house. As a result, Rikka ended up agreeing to help, but since there still
wasn’t enough people for the play I’ve come to you to ask for your help.”

As I said that, Shichimiya crossed her arms once again, visibly nodding her head
and murmuring ‘hmmm’ to show that she understood.

“Hmm, I see. Naturally, Hero’s also helping this Amaniji-senpai out, right?”

“Ah, yeah, but, well, it’s not like I’m helping out that much.”

The moment those words left my mouth, I felt a sense of déjà vu.
 No, it wasn’t just déjà vu – didn’t I say something similar to that pretty recently?

“Nyahahahaha, it looks like Hero really does think like a hero! That sort of thing
is what I really love about you ☆”

Because of its various implications, I was startled by the words that Shichimiya
said with a smile. My slightly distraught face seemed to have transmitted my shock to
Shichimiya.

Realising what her words could have meant, Shichimiya’s face froze in the exact
same way as mine for an instant. Her cheeks were a bit red as she tried to smooth
things over:

“Nyahaha, that didn’t come out right. …Sorry. No, well, but I really do love
Hero’s heroic way of thinking! I really admire you – you’re my rival after all, since
I’m a demon!”

To restore the cheerful mood that we had before, I too replied with a smile on
my face.

“Yeah, thanks. I’m not sure what to think after being told that I think heroically,
but if it’s a compliment then I guess I’ll happily accept it.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s a compliment! Well then, it’s probably good that we hurry, and
even if it’s bad we should still hurry to that Amaniji-senpai’s place!”

In order to gloss over what just happened, Shichimiya strengthened her tone.

…Well, it was Shichimiya’s fault that we started chatting – of course I didn’t say
that.

After returning to the classroom that Rikka was waiting in with Shichimiya, we
met up with Rikka (sure enough, the moment they met a battle started to unfold, but
I’ll omit that part) and the three of us headed to the clubroom of the ‘Eccentric Drama
Club’.

[1] The traditional Japanese feature rich flip-phone

[2] A pun about similarly named manga/magazines: Parfait Tic (shoujo

manga), Weekly Shounen Sunday, and Manga Time Kirara.
[3] BanBan (バンバン) is an old Japanese folkgroup.

“Oh, right. Their clubroom’s the principal’s office.”

After we left the classroom, I told the two of them where Amaniji-senpai’s
clubroom was supposedly located.

Sure enough, both of them found that to be strange – they were both visibly
baffled by what I just said.

But then again, I probably had the same expression on my face when I heard that
from Amaniji-senpai yesterday.

“Isn’t the principal’s office the room where the principal is? How do you
perform club activities in a place like that?”

Shichimiya raised the question that was on everyone’s minds.

I’m not exactly certain what the principal’s office is actually like, but my mental
image of it is that it’s a wide and spacious room. Although there probably will be
enough space for us to rehearse the play there, it didn’t feel like it was an appropriate
place for club activities.

“Well, I guess we’ll find out how once we get there, so let’s go.”

“Nyahahahaha, that’s right! Still, since the principal gives off the impression of
being the boss of the school, I’m a bit excited! It feels like that the three of us are the
party members of the elite few who are taking the last boss. Ah, since that’s the
feeling I’m getting, let’s do our best, ‘kay! Hero! Rikka-chan!”

“I see, understood,” said Rikka formally as she nodded in consent.

…For some reason, the two of them were getting ready to enter in a showdown
against the principal.

Although that wasn’t our actual goal, but when it comes to facing that principal
as an opponent, it’s strange how you could, just like Shichimiya said, describe such an
encounter as fighting the last boss.

Our principal definitely does seem to be very strong.

 Whether it’s the school’s entrance ceremony, the announcement for an
excursion, or even the opening ceremony just a few days ago, our principal certainly
is a bit over-the-top… If we end up having to greet our principal… I could feel the
weight behind my steps.

Alright, guess I’ll also add some pep talk of my own then –

“Well then, let’s go. To fight the last boss.”

As I said that to the two of them, I took a single step forward.

To be honest, I was getting swept up by the mood.

Somehow, I ended up saying such a thing.

“Yuuta, you shouldn’t be the first one to go. Let me demonstrate that I, wielder
of the Devilish Truth Stare, am the strongest. The likes of the principal will be buried
in an instant. I’ll rend apart the darkness of our school. The world will be return to
peace once again.”

As I turned my head around to look at Rikka as she started talking, her composed
face had been, like I expected, transformed into her usual look of confidence.

Seriously, that’s quite a happy face you’ve got there, Rikka-san.

It surpassed the happy atmosphere that we just had.

Still, don’t say something like our school’s darkness! It sounds like our school’s
corrupt!

“No no Rikka-san, please leave it to me, the Magical Demon Duchess. I suffered
a defeat in our last bout, so let me take this one. This is my revenge match. It’d be
enough for Rikka-chan and Hero to simply cheer for me from behind!”

…She was even more swept up by the mood than me–!

Reflecting upon my words, I shrugged my shoulders as I wearily advanced.

When the two of them are together, the mood soon becomes like this, which is
quite hard to deal with… I regretted saying such a thing so lightly…

“Guess it can’t be helped – I’ll concede this time, Sofia. Do your best!”
 “Nyahaha! Leave it to me, I’ve got this☆”

“…Sorry, this is my fault, if we meet the principal please make the greeting
normal…”

As I turned my head around once again to apologise for my rash comment, for
some reason the two of them looked satisfied,

“It’s Yuuta after all. With the Demon King’s power, Yuuta will deliver divine
punishment. Do your best!”

“As expected of Hero. Hero’s keen to administer capital punishment with his
power; do your best!”

and replied in complete sync.

Wow, it’s like they’re twins.

“No no, what kind of person are you making me out to be…?”

I’m a Demon King, a hero, and now a deva as well. This excessive setting is
rather troubling.

Still, seeing the two of them being perfectly in sync was really moving.

It’s beautiful how close they’ve gotten.

With the two of them, who were still caught up by the mood, holding their fun
conversation behind me, the three of us headed towards the principal’s office.

On the first floor, at the very end of the hallway.

In a place where not many people have set foot, a place that was dead silent –
there laid the principal’s office.

Needless to say, this was my first time coming here.

It’s likely the same for the two behind me as well.

Since it was just before the cultural festival, almost the entire school was busy
with preparations, so it was weird how this place alone was dead silent.
 On the topic of this place’s atmosphere, it was so unusually silent here that it
honestly wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this was area just before the last
boss.

Well, it would be an exaggeration, but this place did sort of give off the
impression that this was the save point before the last boss.

If that’s the case, then this was the point of no return.

“Now then, I’ll repeat myself one more time. Our goal isn’t to defeat the
principal. It’s to meet Amaniji-senpai. Okay?”

“Roger.”

“Nyahaha, okay☆”

With Rikka’s acknowledgement and Shichimiya making a mysterious okay sign

next to her cheeks, it seemed that there was no need for any further preparations, so I
knocked on the door of the principal’s office – I uttered “excuse me” before entering
quietly.

Neither the principal nor Amaniji-senpai, who was our goal, was present.

Before my eyes – a scene that definitely wasn’t befitting of the principal’s office
was unfolding.

Up until now, I’ve never entered the principal’s office, but it was exactly as I
imagined it to be – there was a bookshelf embellished in trophies and a wall
ornamented with framed certificates.

However, there was a scene before my eyes which, while frequently seen in a
normal classroom, felt quite out-of-place in the principal’s office.
In front of the principal’s desk.

Sitting on the sofa which seemed to be for guests, with her arms on the table to
use as a pillow, was a sleeping girl with drool spilling out of her mouth.
It was really strange.

Why are you sleeping in the principal’s office?

 I was visibly dumbfounded by this and couldn’t say anything to Rikka and
Shichimiya, who came in after me.

They were also speechless and had confused expressions on their faces.

I turned my attention towards the face of the sleeping girl, who was drooling.

Where have I seen her before – ah, that time in the nurse’s office.

I remember her clearly, as she had something scribbled on her forehead at that
time.
If I’m not mistaken, it was the word “demon”.

There wasn’t anything on her forehead this time, so it doesn’t look like that was
a special quirk of hers. Rather, it seemed like it was just a prank.

Nevertheless, she seemed like that type of person who would sleep anywhere…
Naturally, I was curious as to how she could sleep in the principal’s office to the point
where drool started to come out, but I also wanted to ask her about Amaniji-senpai’s
whereabouts.

Since she’s sleeping here, she was probably a member of the club too.

Alright, let’s discuss this with the others.

“Well, it’d bad if we left her with her drool hanging, so it’s probably for the best
to wake her up. Additionally, she might know something about Amaniji-senpai’s
whereabouts.”

Since she was still sleeping, I was, for the time being, speaking to the others in a
quiet voice.

“Yuuta, you first. She might be an enemy.”

From her downcast face, Rikka was indicating ‘not me’.

She was invoking her ‘shyness’ skill.

…This was in spite the fact that just a few moments ago, she said, among other
things, that I shouldn’t be the first to go.
 “Yeah, yeah, this is a task for Hero. I don’t know any spells that can awaken a
sleeping person. I’m an offensive specialist, so I’m no good at support magic.”

Shichimiya skilfully avoided the responsibility of waking her up.

Or rather, she was saying that I was a support-type hero who only knew spells
with effects such as waking a sleeping person up…

A hero like that’s sort of pathetic…

Still, I guess it’d be weird if a useful spell like that didn’t exist.

“Well, I thought that the female division would be better suited for such a task,
but… I mean, it’s not like I mind, but…”

In any case, it was a pity that the principal didn’t suddenly return and exclaim,
“Hey hey! It’s no good to drool in the sacred principal’s office! No good at all!”, or
something like that. Looks like it’s up to me to wake her up.

I moved closer to her.

I felt really deplorable since my girlfriend was right next to me, but after looking
at her face closely, as expected, her drool seemed to make her look – no, maybe the
drool only seemed cute since she was cute. Either way, drool or no drool – I thought
that she was cute.

I considered shaking her awake, but I decided against it, as she may have been
aversive to having another guy touch her without any warning. Instead, I decided to
wake her up by whispering to her.

“Umm, excuse me. Drool’s hanging from your mouth.”

“……”

There was no response. It seemed like she was sleeping deeply.

Time to try again. This time, I’ll be a bit louder.

“Um, excuse me! Drool’s hanging from your mouth!”

Twitching this time, she quickly got up.

 As she was getting up, she pulled out a handkerchief that looked like it was
prepared in advance (it seemed like something like this has happened to her before)
and wiped her drool off her face. She then turned her face towards me, blinking as she
double-checked her surroundings.

After all that, while she was still blinking at me, she opened her mouth to speak
as if she suddenly remembered something.

“…Oh? Has my alarm rung, or have I become an Amura?[1]”

“I totally understand why you would say the former, but the latter? What kind of
dreams are you having!?”

All of a sudden, she said something silly. I couldn’t help but retort.

I have a quick wit, if I may say so myself. A salute to my straight man spirit.

“…What, so it wasn’t my alarm. Well then… Zzz…”

“No wait, please wait a minute! Please don’t fall asleep again now that you’re
relieved!”

“Hehe, there’s no need to worry. I was merely saying “zzz”.”

“You were saying it!? Why would you say something like that in the middle of
the conversation!?”

“Hehe, it was a joke. Yeah… thank you very much for waking me up. So, you
are? And, what is it that you want from me?”

She was pretty much doing things at her own pace.

What’s up with her? Who is this person…!?

As she stretched her body, she stared at the three of us, alternating her gaze
between us one at a time.

“Err… I’m Togashi Yuuta. Umm, and you are?”

I got so swept up by her pace that I ended up giving my normal self-introduction.

Her power to set the pace was terrifying.

 “Ah, so you’re Yuuta-kun. So Yuu-chan then. Nice to meet you, and please treat
me well~.”

…She instantly decided on calling me by the same nickname that Amaniji-

senpai gave to me.

But, then again, it’s not like it’s a bad nickname.

And, from the way you’ve phrased it, it seems like you know about me?

Still, I’m a bit hurt that you didn’t answer my question…

“And you two are?”

Slanting her head, she shifted her gaze behind me.

Her voice seemed to be directed at Rikka and Shichimiya, who were standing in
front of the door peeping at the situation.

Shichimiya was the first to step up in response to those words.

She moved to the left of me.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Shichimiya Satone. However, that’s just an alias – my
true name is Sofia Ring –”

“So Satone-chan then! Nice to meet you, and please treat me well~.”

It was interrupted.

The battle of an airhead’s pace VS resisting being swept up by her pace has
ended in Shichimiya’s defeat!

It seems that this girl may be quite skilled. Even Shichimiya was stupefied by the
sudden interruption.

At last, it was now Rikka’s turn. However, Rikka stayed hidden behind
Shichimiya and me as she introduced herself.

“I’m Takanashi Rikka. Please treat me well.”

 Bowing her head, it looks like she more or less managed to introduce herself
properly.

Looking earnestly through the gap between Shichimiya and me, the girl gave
Rikka a child-soothing smile,

“So you’re Rikka-chan! Please treat me well~.”

and said that as she, while seated, politely bowed her head.

Then, after raising her head, she once again gave a sweet smile.

“Me, I’m a second year, Tsuyuri Kumin. And I’m a member of the drama club –
ah, no, that’s not quite right. I’m a member of the Eccentric Drama Club, so please
treat me well!”

Tsuyuri Kumin-senpai spoke with a relaxed tone.

You could feel that her tempo was oozing out of her from various places. In
addition, like I expected, it seems that she was a club member.

Nevertheless, her name’s Tsuyuri? As a surname, Tsuyuri definitely makes the

list of rare names.

Is our school a treasury of rare names or something?

Or, was our principal admitting people into the school based on names taken
from the entrance exams and interviews… It’s troubling how plain my name was
around here.

“Eh? No response? That’s going to make me cry…”

With her head tilted in puzzlement, which definitely wasn’t giving off the
impression of being on the verge of tears at all, was Tsuyuri Kumin-senpai.

Turning my gaze towards Shichimiya, it seemed that she was feeling sad from
being cut off before, as her face was downcast and was teary-eyed. Poor
Shichimiya…

Rikka was invoking her ‘shyness’ skill once again, releasing her aura from
behind me with no consideration of me at all.
 It appears that I was the only one who could reply.

“Ah, err, same here, please treat us well too. Um, we were told to come here by
Amaniji-senpai. Do you know where she is?”

“Since its Hideri-chan, she should be arriving shortly? Yeah, that’s right, Hideri-
chan did tell me about you guys! She was talking about how great things were since
an amazing person was joining us. Right, right, just like the rumours say, to me
Satone-chan definitely does seem amazing!”

“Eh, me!? Nyahaha, I mean, I’m the Magical Demon Duchess after all!”

Although she was astonished by the sudden turn of events, Shichimiya had a
look of relief on her face, as she was finally able to give her usual speech about her
character’s setting.

In addition, as a result of being praised so suddenly, she was laughing to hide her
embarrassment.

It seemed that she had bounced back from being depressed and was, above all
else, happy.

“Eh, that’s amazing! Since you’re a demon duchess, does that mean you live in a
place like a castle?”

“No no, to be a demon duchess, I cannot live in luxury, so I had the castle sold.
Presently, I reside in an apartment.”

“Is that so? What a serious Demon Duchess-san.”

As if it were normal, she agreed with what Shichimiya said.

How shocking. Were you accepting a setting like that as normal!?

Doing things at her own pace… or more precisely, she’s an airhead. On top of
that, she seemed like a weird person.

How should I put it – she was weird to the extent that it made sense as to why
she’s part of the same club as Amaniji-senpai.

When you think about it carefully, Tsuyuri Kumin-senpai was also scouted by
Amaniji-senpai, so it was sort of a given that she would be weird.
 “Um, Tsuyuri-senpai –”

“Ah, there’s no need to call me Tsuyuri, Kumin is fine. Well, it’s fine if you call
me Tsuyuri, but after saying Tsuyuri a lot, wouldn’t the 7th of May[2] be confusing?”

I was cut off by Tsuyuri-senpai – er, Kumin-senpai – to be corrected on how I

should be addressing her.

There didn’t seem to be any ill will, but it’s likely that she had either some sort
of speech interruption skill or was the type who didn’t really listen to others much.

Then again, just like Kumin-senpai says, repeating Tsuyuri a lot really does seem
to erode the date the 7th of May from my mind.

I signalled my understanding with a small nod, before returning to what I was

trying to say before.

“Um, in that case, I’ll call you Kumin-senpai then. Well, Kumin-senpai –”And,
as soon as I said that, I heard the door open.

Shifting my attention to the door that was vigorously opened, I saw the person
that I had been looking for.

Overwhelmingly rich in colour.

As the others would say, a cluster of aura.

She was so distinct that her existence was radiating with prominence.

The upperclassman, Amaniji Hideri, cheerfully strutted into the office.

“Man, what an ordeal! We met with the student council, but they could only say
normal things. Don’t they understand that we can’t do normal – eh!? Yuu-chan’s
here!? Oh, and DevTru Rikka-chan too! Thanks SO much for coming!”

Amaniji-senpai was in high spirits after seeing Rikka, but she didn’t prostrate
this time to greet us.

Although Rikka was hiding behind my back, she couldn’t hide herself from
Amaniji-senpai as she came from behind me. Still, since it was a normal greeting, it
was baffling as to how energetic her greeting was.
 “And – are you perhaps the one Yuu-chan talked about, the person who might
help?”, said Amaniji-senpai, placing her finger on her chin as she stared at Shichimiya
closely.

Her stare (or her aura) overwhelmed Shichimiya, causing her to become frozen.

“…No way! There was still someone this outstanding at our school!? Where
have you been hiding until now!?”

Shichimiya got praised again.

I’m not sure why, but she was popular.

Well, then again, I brought her along with me since I thought that she was
someone who Amaniji-senpai would be absolutely pleased with.

Apparently, it seems that I’ve brought along the right person. And, as if she was
waiting for Amaniji-senpai to say those words, Shichimiya flashed a posed look.

“That’s, that’s right!”, said Shichimiya with a raised voice.

“My dark scarf is charged with magic power – it’s glistering with the destructive
energy of the Demon Duchess! As you wished, the Magical Demon Duchess, Sofia-
chan, is here!”

This was the second time that I’d heard that speech today.

Naturally, her arms were crossed in a daunting pose. She didn’t forget to smile
and laugh “nyahahahaha” either.

“Yeah, you’re definitely great! Thanks for that unique greeting! On top of that,
your name’s cool as well. Well, in that case, we’ll call you Sofia-chan, and you can
call us Rainbow Hideri-san!”

“Hmm, no thanks, that sounds terrible☆”

…Unlike Rikka, she outright refused!

She was wearing her usual soft grin, and yet she clearly turned Amaniji-senpai’s
offer down.

As expected, Amaniji-senpai was devastated.

 “DevTru Rikka-chan refused to call me that as well… that name, is… is it really
that bad…?”

She was really depressed.

I was tempted to console her over the nickname, since I’ve also had a similar
experience (this too was part of my dark history, so I’m not going to talk about it.
Even now, I could still recall how my mother looked at me at that time), but the name
was way too eccentric for me to follow-up on.

Plus, I also refuse to call her that.

“Now, now, Hideri-chan, it really is quite a mouthful to say. That’s why it’s my
privilege to call you Rainbow Hideri.”

“But if that’s the case, then how come we feel like that you’ve never called us by
that name before!?”

“Eh? Ah, it’s because the name’s really long. That’s why I call you Hideri-
chan.”

“……”

Could it be that Kumin-senpai was actually even more eccentric than Amaniji-
senpai…?

“Ha, I guess you can compromise on the nickname like Kumin. However, Sofia-
chan, if it’s possible, please call us by something that feels daring.”

Recovering, Amaniji-senpai had a smile on her face as she said those words
flamboyantly.

It made her seem really cute.

“Understood. Let’s see… then, how about Hid Eri-san[3] –”

“It’s daring – or more accurately, you just wanted to cut her name in in name,
didn’t you!?[4]”

Since the name was so excessively daring, my bad habit accidentally resurfaced
again.
 Guess there’s no longer any doubt as to me being the prince of retorts.

As expected from Yuu-chan!

Then again, if I look at this from another perspective, it could be said that
everyone else was playing the funny man… that would be really astonishing!

“Really? Well, how about Sun Dried-san[5]?”

“The imagery of the rainbow, the thing that definitely shouldn’t be left out, was
cut!?”

“In that case, Rainbow-san then.”

“It’s actually daring this time!”

“Jeez, you’re so picky! Fine then, I’ll just call her Hideri-san!”

…It seems that due to me, Amaniji-senpai ended up with a normal nickname.

However, it seemed that seeing our back and forth had placated her, as she didn’t
voice a complaint about being given a normal nickname. In addition, her mouth was
loosened.

“Hahaha, yeah, that’s fine. Since we’ve your upperclassman, we’ll tolerate a
being called name like that. Besides, this is the long-awaited meeting after all.”

As she said that, Amaniji-senpai moved towards the centre of the room – in other
words, she moved towards what seemed to be for the principal’s private use only, the
principal’s desk (I’m not sure if it really is called that).

And, standing in the most prominent place in the room, a place where she could
look over everybody – she closed her eyes and vigorously nodded.

“Yeah! Everyone’s here! In that case, let’s start the club activities for the
“Eccentric Drama Club” right away!”

It was so sonorous – just like how a real actress would announce it.

She also had a splendid sparkle-like smile.

 Just from that expression, I could sense how overjoyed Amaniji-senpai was
about being able to perform club activities.

As I turned to my right to look at Rikka, she seemed to be overflowing with

motivation, nodding along to Amaniji-senpai’s announcement.

Rikka doesn’t seem like that type of person, but maybe deep down she actually
longed-for things like club activities.

Rikka’s definitely changed from when she’s first entered school.

I think she’s been changing in various ways ever since we started dating.

As for me – it was the same as well.

Various things have happened since starting school, and she’s gained multitude
of new experiences, so I’m sure that she’s changed quite a bit – naturally, since I’m
the one saying it, I think that she’s definitely been changing for the better.

In the beginning, she really hated studying for Maths, but now she’s improved so
much at it that she’s now able to avoid a failing grade. On top of that, she used to be
the type of person who wouldn’t talk to anyone in the class at all, but now she’s an
active member of the class performance.

Well, she only talks to Kanzari-chan, but still.

Even if it’s just to Kanzari-chan, when you think about it, it still was a really
good change.

Rikka’s definitely maturing.

Although she was a chuunibyou patient, she was moulding us into her world –

“Yuuta? Wait, sorry, my bad. Yuu-chan, what’s wrong?”

“Are you angry!?”

“No, not at all, it was just a joke. I wouldn’t get angry over a name like that. It’s
just that I felt a really strong gaze from Yuuta.”

“You stressed it as if it was some kind of new phrase… never mind. You’re a bit
excited.”
 “Yeah, I want to play the leading part!”

…She was way more enthusiastic about this than I imagined.

A short distance to my left, Shichimiya appeared to also suddenly be in high

spirits, as she stood imposingly with her arms crossed. Although she was giving off
the aura of someone who was playing a leading role, it was pointless since it didn’t
seem like she was going to be given such a role. After all, she was only here as a
helper.

I casually shifted my gaze towards Kumin-senpai’s direction – and she was

sleeping.

Her sleeping – it felt like that was the thing characterising Kumin-senpai.

As expected of Kumin-senpai. She was really nonsensical.

What kind of play can you perform with a member like that – I’d like to say that
I’m excited for the play, but I can’t help but be anxious.

[1] This sentence is an untranslatable pun. “watashi no arāmu natta” (わたしのアラ

ーム鳴った), or “has my alarm rung”, was ‘repeated’ again by Kumin, “watashi,
amurā ni natta” (わたし、アムラーになった), or “have I become an Amura”. An
“Amura” is a term for young girls who imitate the dressing style of Namie Amuro, a
longstanding J-Pop artist.

[2] Kumin’s surname, 五月七日, can be read either as Tsuyuri (つゆり) or (and much
more commonly) 7th of May (ごがつなのか).

[3] A pun lost in translation. Shichimiya breaks the kanji for Hideri’s name (旱) into
Hiboshi (日干).

[4] Another pun lost in translation. The phrase思い切った, what I’ve loosely
translated as daring, can be split as 思い[通り] (doings things as one wants) and 切っ
た (to cut).

[5] A third pun lost in translation. This time, Shichimiya adds the first kanji of her
surname (天) into the mix, turning the nickname into, as a literal translation, Sun
Dried (天日干し). Yuuta then retorts by saying how Shichimiya left out the second
part of her surname (虹) which translates as rainbow, which is a word which is almost
synonymous with Amaniji-senpai (or at least her physical appearance).

Chapter 5: Princess☆Ashes

The first thing we did after all the members of the club have gathered was to
introduce ourselves once again.

Currently, we were all gathered around the reception table. Four of us were
seated on the sofa – Rikka, who was to my left; Shichimiya, who was in front of
Rikka; Kumin-senpai (she woke up quickly), who was in front of me; and me.And,
standing in front of the principal’s desk, giving off the impression that she was both
the president of the club and the chairperson of the meeting, was Amaniji-senpai.

“First things first. Yuu-chan, DevTru Rikka-chan, Sofia-chan – for agreeing to

helping out with the play, we really appreciate it. Seriously, thanks so much,” said
Amaniji-senpai gently as she bowed her head deeply.

Her body was completely perpendicular. From that posture, you could tell that
she was being really sincere.

I’ve already seen it many times before, but it truly was an elegant prayer.
It gave off the impression that she wasn’t allowed to raise her head. However,
Amaniji-senpai did eventually return her posture back to normal.
Her returning her posture back to normal also felt like a very refined action.
Then, she flashed a smile in our direction.

“And, although it shames us, we don’t have anything prepared for the two of you
as compensation for helping out. As a result, what we’ll do instead for thanks, DevTru
Rikka-chan and Sofia-chan, is to do any one thing that you would like for us to do for
you. Is that okay?”

“Nyahaha, there’s no need for you to thank me at all.”

Embarrassed, Shichimiya was waving her hands back and forth to decline
Amaniji-senpai’s offer.

“Anything?”

In contrast, Rikka replied energetically, sounding out the offer.

 As expected, there was no hesitation at all from Rikka when it comes to
imposing sudden contracts.

Well, there shouldn’t be a problem, since Amaniji-senpai was the one offering.

“Yeah, anything you want! Oh, but the request can’t be for anything normal!
Let’s see, for example… you could ask to become a pâtissier, or something like that!”

…Rather than a request, that’s just a dream for the future…

If you were able to make wishes like that come true. then I’d like to become a
samurai, or something like that.

Yeah, my way of thinking was a bit chuuni-ish, if I may say so myself.

“Understood – cannot be normal. Thinking.”

“Yeah, think about it! Oh, right, if Sofia-chan refrains from requesting anything,
then you’ll be able to request for three things! For the time being, consider us as the
genie of your magic lamp!”

“A lamp’s…!? Can you read my mind!?”

“Hehe, yep, we can read it~. You’re thinking about… Togashi Yumeha!”

“Don’t suddenly pretend to be Akinator[1]!”

Moreover, how did you know what my sister’s full name was!? There definitely
wasn’t a reason for Amaniji-senpai to know her full name…

Is she the real Akinator!?

“Well, for whatever it is that the three of you have decided on, leave it to us!
Now that that’s settled, it’s time for us to hand over the script for the play!”

It seems that Amaniji-senpai had prepared the scripts well in advance, as the
three of us each had a script to ourselves.

Kumin-senpai also seemed to have her own script as well, as she pulled a copy
of it out from her bag.

Moving my gaze towards the title of the script that was given to me, I saw the
words ‘Princess☆Ashes’ printed in a sans-serif typeface.
 When I turned the cover page over, the role list for this play was printed.

The number of roles – there were exactly 5.

In the space next to leading role, ‘Cinderella’, to show who was casted – it was
blank.

Blank – or to be more precise, it was erased.

It seemed like a correction pen was used to erase what used to be there.

The next entries on the list were ‘Prince’, ‘Lord of Witches’, ‘Emperor’, and
‘Queen’.

Like with the main role, there were traces of correction fluid in the space where
the cast member’s name was supposed to be.

…This script, weren’t there way too many things for me to retort about?

Princess Ashes – I assumed that we were doing Cinderella, since the Japanese
translation of Cinderella is ‘Ash Covered Princess’, but aside from the leading role the
play was nothing like Cinderella at all.

More precisely, the only common elements were the royals!

Briefly skimming over the script, it seemed that there were seven lithographs to
collect, and that instead of a ball, there was a martial arts tournament to attend…
Crap, the script’s so weird that I’ve started sweating.

“Hmm, the leading role is super cool!”

“Nyahaha, the ‘Lord of Witches’ role seems to suit me well!”

“Rikka-chan and Satone-chan seem to be fine playing any role, so there might
not be a need for me to have any screen time~.”

Unlike me, Rikka and Shichimiya seemed to enjoy how nonsensical the script
was. In addition, for some reason, Kumin-senpai also joined in on their conversation.
It seems that the three of them were getting along well…

After seeing our reactions, Amaniji-senpai told us the name of the story that the
script was based on.
 “Right, so; but we’re sure you have already figured it out after looking at the
script. That’s right, it’s Cinderella.”

“No no, what part of this is Cinderella-like!?”

“We’ll be charging you for that ordinary response.”

“You’re pressing me for money!?”

“Still, Yuu-chan’s right. We’ve added quite a bit to the original story, since
doing a ‘standard’ version of Cinderella would be way too boring!”

“……” “……” “……”

Nobody retorted – normally I’d be raising one, but it seems that I’ve been
prohibited from voicing any.

In addition, there’s also a fee to retort now.

“We-well then! First of all, let’s start with the casting; if no one has any
particular role in mind, then are you guys fine with letting us decide?”

Shifting her gaze away from us, Amaniji-senpai asked for our approval.

There didn’t seem to be any objections from Rikka and Shichimiya – rather, they
seemed to be nodding along in agreement.

I mean, it’s not like I had any objections to Amaniji-senpai deciding on the cast
either, so I also nodded along in agreement.

“Thanks for agreeing, everyone! We really didn’t expect my request to go that

smoothly. Having no objections sometimes can be nice. In that case, for the role of
Cinderella – DevTru Rikka-chan, play that role for me please!”

Amaniji-senpai pointed her hand towards Rikka.

I was struck by how charming she looked with her palm intentionally upturned,
but –

“Um, normally, shouldn’t Amaniji-senpai or Kumin-senpai be taking the leading

role…?”
 I was a bit reserved in voicing my objection to how extremely unexpected the
casting was.

I thought that I wouldn’t have any objections, but it seemed that I was just being
swayed along by the mood. I mean, wasn’t this going to be their last play…?

“It’s fine, it’s fine! Doing things like this makes it even less normal, so it’s fine.
Besides, we were planning on offering DevTru Rikka-chan the lead role anyway, so
there’s no problem at all. But with that in mind, guess you could say that casting her
as Cinderella was the normal thing to do. How extremely disappointing.”

“Well… if that’s the only part you are depressed about… what about your
thoughts, Rikka?”

It didn’t seem like she had any objections, but all the same I should double-
check with her just in case.

“Please leave it to me! Jet Black Cinderella – I recall that she too was once a
wielder of the Devilish Truth Stare, so this role is perfect for me.”

“No no! Even if your hand is on your chest and you’re full of self-confidence
with your reply, you’re not going to overturn the already established image of
Cinderella, okay!?”

“I’m doing no such thing. Jet Black Cinderella is a super strong image.”

“…Sure, that image does feel a bit strong, but: Cinderella never had an image
like that!”

Then again, now that you mention it – just by sticking Jet Black to the name, it
gives the feeling that she wouldn’t have dropped the glass slipper, nor would she have
been bullied.

In fact, she seems to be stronger than her older sister. Then again, there’s no
‘older sister’ role in this play.

“Ahaha, so you’re fine with that? Since DevTru Rikka-chan agreed to it as well,
then the cast member for Cinderella has been decided on! Good luck!”

Losing interest in my response, Amaniji-senpai announced that the casting for

the role had been decided upon.
 Well, then again, this was the outcome that both Amaniji-senpai and Rikka
wanted, so there isn’t anything more for me to say…

More importantly.

Why are situations like these the only time that Rikka’s ‘shyness’ attribute
doesn’t get invoked – I’m curious.

“Now then, onto the next role! The Lord of Witches! Please play this role, Sofia-
chan! Although it’s regrettably normal to casting you as the Lord of Witches, you
simply fit the image of the role all too perfectly.”

“Nyahaha, entrust this to me! I’m the Magical Demon Duchess, or the Demonic
Sorceress[2] for short! As someone who has surpassed being a mere witch, this role is
perfect for me!”

“……”

Although Shichimiya stated, with a self-satisfied smile, that it was a great thing
for her to be cast in such a role, with her appearing more lively than usual, it honestly
didn’t really feel like something all that impressive…

Then again, it’s not like I had any particular objections here either.

There was nothing for me to criticise, as I too also thought that Shichimiya was
perfect for the role.

As for the rest of the roles –

“Then, in that case, we will be playing Emperor and Kumin will be playing the
Queen.”

“’Kaaay. Since my role didn’t change, I’m fine with it~.”

“Yep, the roles for us two are the same as before! Finally, since Yuu-chan’s the
only person remaining, he’ll be playing as the Prince!”

I had the feeling something like this was going to happen…

Even though I thought that I was going to be cast as some minor role like the
background tree, or something like that.
 Although I didn’t plan on raising any objections, this was something that I had to
contest.

“Um, I’m not sure if I’m suitable for such a prominent role like that… shouldn’t
you or Kumin-senpai should take this role instead so you can have a more active part
in the play…!?”

“No no, Yuu-chan. Rest assured, the Prince role is actually the smallest role in
the play.”

“Ah… is that so?”

It seemed that I was the only one who made the mistake of thinking that it was a
prominent role.

How embarrassing… my face’s bright red!

And then.

“Arc-san! Since the role of ‘Prince’ is normal, I request that we add an additional
setting to it called ‘Dark Flame Master’!”

Without warning, Rikka raised her hand up and voiced a completely unrelated
proposal.

Although she usually doesn’t do that sort of thing… why now!?

Moverover, even if my role was said to be a minor one, it wasn’t something that
should make you so dissatisfied to the point where your checks were
swollen… Besides, it would be extremely embarrassing for me if we added that novel
setting to my role, as it would essentially expose my past to the entire school…!

All of my nerves were getting frayed…

“Eh!? Nor, normal…? And, well, the, err, Dark Flame Master…? Hmm… well,
true, we too did think that the ‘Prince’ role, which was mundanely neither good nor
bad, was a bit lacking in terms of character traits, but even so we thought that a prince
that was generic, commonplace, and ordinary would be…”

“Isn’t a prince that’s completely generic and ordinary be a bit too unappealing!?
Is that even a prince anymore!?”
 It seemed that everything normal was crammed into this prince.

“Togashi-kun’s doesn’t have much of a presence, does he?” was what someone
had said of the elementary school me!

Those words really depressed me… if I never had heard those shocking words,
then perhaps I may have never been inflected by chuunibyou…

“We see, we see… it’s true that there isn’t really a need for the prince to be
normal. A prince that appears to be number one in normalness is no good at all! As
such, let’s adopt DevTru Rikka-chan’s, the leading actress’, idea!”

“It’s already been decided on!?”

“Yep, it’s been decided. A vote for amusingness! Besides, it’s only the prince
role, so whatever,” said Amaniji-senapi as she loosened her expression.

However, it seemed that she wasn’t pleased about the change as her voice was a
bit sharp – her words made me feel a bit guilty.

‘A reluctance to make modifications to the script’ was the impression I was

getting from her.

‘Since we had no time, it’s only natural to not want any changes to the final
manuscript.’ With the exception of that, the rest of my feelings of guilt are probably
just from me reading into things too much.

That was the sort of half-hearted reply she gave.

“I did it, Yuuta! The Dark Flame Master shall finally descend into the world!”

“…Ah, yes, right.”

Next to the delighted Rikka, I was unsure over whether the change was okay.

Since Amaniji-senpai was the one asking us for help, it’s possible that she was
finding it hard to voice her objections. What should I do?

While I was worrying over what to do alone, Amaniji-senpai began talking once
again. This time, her words were so clear that it seemed her sharp tone from before
were a lie.
 “Right, so now the cast is settled! Now then –”

“Hideri-chan, are you not going to talk about that~?”

The person who reacted to Amaniji-senpai’s words was Kumin-senpai.

“Ah, right! Thanks, Kumin!”

As she said that, Amaniji-senpai made a daring smile, and then continued:

“This play, it’s going to be performed as a guerrilla play!”

It felt like she was giving off a manga-like “D~ON!!!” expression as she said
that.

Her hands were on her hip too.

It was as if she had just announced something important.

“Nononononononononono”

I said “no” so many times that I didn’t even know how many times I said “no”.

It was such a bombshell of an announcement that it made me spring up from my

seat.

“Isn’t something like that prohibited by the school!?”

“Naturally, the student council didn’t approve this!”

“Why are you proud about that!?”

“Don’t you think that it’d be too boring the play was scheduled in the
programme as per normal? …But, well, that’s just this upperclassman’s opinion.”

“Not at all, and I’m sure that the student council will be mad at us about this
once they find out…”

“They can be mad then. It’s not like the rules are being ignored. The five of us
will just think about how to act in accordance with the rules next time. But, then
again, there is no next time.”
 “……”

“’Within the rules but outside of the norm’, that’s the tagline! What does
everyone think?”

In response to Amaniji-senpai’s query, Shichimiya replied with, “The Cultural

Festival is a war! Surprise tactics are valid!” Rikka then added, “We need to think of a
title for this operation!” Kumin-senpai also chimed in, saying with a gentle smile,
“This seems interesting~.”

Aside from me, everyone else was in high spirits.

…Huh, am I the weird one…?

Everyone being unified created such a misapprehension for me.

Without a doubt, surely, probably, I’m the normal one, but…

However, as a result of the flow of events, I had no choice but to be silent.

“In other words, it’s been agreed to! Now, regarding practice, it’ll commence
tomorrow. The meeting place will be here in the principal’s office, after school
tomorrow, okay? Right, so the first club meeting of the ‘Eccentric Drama Club’ has
now come to a close. Good work today! Look over the script when you get home,
alright?”

As she announced the end of the meeting, Amaniji-senpai slapped her hands
together to signal our dissolution.

We parted ways with our upperclassmen at the principal’s office, and we

returned to the fourth floor, where the first-year classrooms are – we were in front of
the homeroom for class 1-2.

Since I only planned on telling Amaniji-senpai that we could help out, I left my
bag in the classroom, and so we had to return so I could pick it up.

Since our meeting finished so soon, we had quite a bit of time before school
closed for the today.
 It seemed that all the classes were preparing for the cultural festival, as all the
first-year classrooms looked quite busy.

The voices of people practicing either a song or a play.

The light-hearted chat between people preparing for their class’ program.

These sounds were flying at me from all directions.

My classroom was busy as well – the boys were hard at work preparing the stage
for the dance.

Seeing how the girls were absent, it’s likely that they have borrowed another
larger classroom somewhere else for practice.

“Rikka, what are you going to do? Are you going to go to the dance rehearsals?”

“Yeah, I am. Although my dance is perfect, I’ll go since everyone else is

working so hard.”

Ooooh. Such were the words from Rikka’s mouth.

It’s surprising to say that it was surprising, but for her to be able to say those
unexpected words.

Rikka’s also diligently participating – she’s changing.

“I see. In that case, work hard! Shichimiya, what are you going to do?”

“Hm? I don’t really have anything planned for today – ah, since I’m free, maybe
I’ll go tag along with Rikka-chan. I want to go play with Mori-sama!”, said
Shichimiya while smiling.

It was a mischievous kind of smile.

“She’ll be angry if you disturb her too much, so please keep it in moderation…”

“Oh, Hero, I wouldn’t do something like that. I won’t be a nuisance – I’m simply
going to dance along with her! By the way, Hero, what are you going to do?”

“I’m –”
 Although it would have been better for me to remain in the classroom and help
in preparing the stage for the dance, I was a bit worried.

The source of my worries – that sharp negative tone from before.

In addition, there was also the matter about the guerrilla nature of our play.
Personally, I didn’t think it was good for us to trouble others like this, and it seemed
that now would be the only time for me to prevent it from happening.

There was without a doubt some merit in talking about it once, at the very least.

“Hmm… let’s see. Just then, Amaniji-senpai was thinking about adding the
‘Dark Flame Master’ setting into the play, but in the end, it’s still my role… so I guess
I’ll head back and talk with her about it a bit more.”

“Nyahaha, that’s right, it’s Hero’s original form after all. It has to be explained
properly, right?”

“Indeed, it needs to be reported as soon as possible.”

“Oh. In that case, let me know when you two are done. We’ll go home together.”

Then –

After parting ways with Rikka and Shichimiya, I was back in the principal’s
office.

Not even 10 minutes had passed since I was last here, as we had only recently
parted ways from here. Even so, there was still the chance that Amaniji-senpai had
already left for home.

And, as I started thinking about heading back to the classroom to lend a hand in
preparing the stage for the dance, I once again knocked on the door of the principal’s
office and entered quietly.

“Huh, Yuu-chan, what’s the matter? Forgot something?”

“Wait, why are you sitting over there as if it was the natural thing to do…!?”

Sitting imposingly in the chair that seemed to be for the principal’s exclusive use
was Amanij-senpai, who, upon seeing my face when I entered the room, looked a bit
surprised.
 I’m the one who should be surprised here.

“…Ah, umm, rather than something I’ve forget, it’s more like there’s something
I’m a bit concerned about. Err… where’s Kumin-senpai?”

“Something you’re concerned about? As for Kumin, she’s already gone home to
sleep. Did you need her for something?”

“No, that’s not the case. You’re the one that I have some business with. Is now
fine?”

“With us? Yeah, now’s fine. We were only just adjusting the script a bit. Take a
seat, Yuu-chan.”

Getting up from the chair, Amaniji-senpai moved to the sofa near the reception
table.

As she moved, she pulled out two cups and a teapot from somewhere out that
appeared to be the principal’s desk, and carried them over.

…The principal’s desk contained another dimension.

Furthermore, it seemed that the said dimension was cold.

Although I was curious about the desk’s structure, I too took a sit on the sofa,
sitting in such a way that I was face-to-face with Amaniji-senpai.

“Once more, we’d like to say our thanks to you, Yuu-chan. Okay?”, said
Amaniji-senpai delightfully as she poured tea into the cups for the two of us.

“DevTru Rikka-chan and Sofia-chan – for bringing those two wonderful girls
here, seriously, thanks so much. Of course, we’re also thankful to you for agreeing to
help out as well.”

As she said that with a friendly smile, she placed one of the cups of tea in front
of me.

“Rather than thanking me, please go and thank the people themselves. As for me,
I’m more like a freebie thrown in with Rikka.”
 Yeah, we were thinking of giving our thanks to those two once again.
Nevertheless, the fact that everyone was willing to help someone as eccentric as us
makes us really happy.”

“Even you think of yourself as eccentric…”

Well, rather than eccentric, I get the impression that it’d be more accurate to call
you a reckless person.

“Ahahaha, but, well, it’s not like this eccentricity is just for show,” stressed
Amaniji-senpai, earnestly.

For me, those words felt very worrying – it may have been due to the fact that
everything that isn’t ‘normal’ appealed to Amaniji-senpai, but even so, her words felt
rather dark.

Rather than dark, perhaps I should be saying that there was something hidden
within her words.

That her words hid another meaning.

As such – I was worried.

“……”

I hesitated for a moment over whether it was appropriate for me to continue on

with the conversation.

However, that hesitation was overwhelmed by my strong feeling of anxiety.

I’ll keep listening – if it were the case that it was something she didn’t want to
talk about, it would be fine for us to just leave things at that. As such, I decided to
continue the conversation for just a bit longer.

“…Amaniji-senpai, have you always been like this?”

“Hm? Always?”

“Umm, like from when you were small… I get the impression that you’ve
always been an eccentric person.”

“Yep! That’s right!”

 She answered me extremely casually.

Maybe that feeling from before was just my imagination…

“Well, various things did happen though,” said Amaniji-senpai as she lowered
her gaze. She kept her eyes averted for a while.

This time, those words – it wasn’t just my imagination, there definitely was
something hidden within those words.

“Was it not the same for you, Yuu-chan?”

Amaniji-senpai turned to me with a face that was that was completely lacking in
vigour.

Her words sounded frail.

“What do you mean by that?”

“The desire to be more special than anyone else.”

“The desire to be special…”

“Ah, was this the thing that Yuu-chan was talking about, the thing that you’re
worrying about?”

“Er, well…”

Uhh… I was at a loss as to what to say.

I didn’t know where to place my gaze, as I wasn’t sure how I should reply, and
so I defaulted to hanging my head.

To be honest, I was planning on talking about something else. Then again, I was
very curious about Amaniji-senpai’s personality. Rather, perhaps it’d be more
accurate to say that it’s been on my mind for a while now.

The uniquely distinctive rainbow upperclassman – how she became like this, her
circumstances.

On the topic of her personality, it also seemed to remind me of that.

 I wonder if Amaniji-senpai was also ill with it as well – or something similar.

Still, as you’d expect, “Amaniji-senpai seems a bit chuunibyou-ish!” was not

something that I could say to her.

“Ahaha, but it’s not a very pleasant story though. See, it’s not a story we’re sure
you’d be interested in, since it’s the sort that people don’t know how to react to.”

“Wow… I wasn’t expecting that the reason behind that desire was due to that
sort of thing, but…”

“Hehe, aren’t you kind, Yuu-chan? Still, if Yuu-chan’s curious, we’ll talk about
it. Since Yuu-chan will most likely be listening seriously to my story.”

“……”

“We’re sure that you’ll believe our story. Despite the fact that the two of us have
only been acquainted for a short period of time. You’re the strange boy who didn’t
mind our trespassing into your room after all.”

“No, that’s…”

“To be honest, we’ve been pleased with you ever since that time, Yuu-chan.
Ordinary people won’t even hear us out. Moreover, you’ve been listening to our weird
story even now.”

“…When you put things like that, on the contrary it makes it harder for me to
ask about it.”

“Really? In that case, we’ll willingly tell you about it!”

“You’re weird enough to be an Amanojaku[3], seriously!”

Honestly, I’m not sure if she’s hard or easy to deal with.

On one hand, she’s declared that she can’t do anything normally. On the other,
it’s admirable how frank she is in carrying out her words.

Still, in that sense – she’s exactly what you’d expect.

“Nevertheless, it’s a bit hard to talk about that here… it seems that the principal
is about to return as well, so how about the two of us change locations?”
 ◆

Following our conversation, I was brought to Amaniji-senpai’s room.

Her room – it wasn’t some sort of special room that was within the school
grounds. Rather, as you’d normally expect, it was a room outside of the school
campus; a room that was part of her lodgings.

However, it was only a three-minute walk away from the school gates.

She lived a section of the third storey of a low-rise condo located behind the
school. I didn’t really associate it as being outside school grounds, since in my head
the image of being outside the school grounds was linked with the need to commute
very far.

It was shorter to walk from the school to here than to walk from one end of the
school to the other.

Furthermore, if you left from the back gate, commuting wouldn’t even take a
minute, making this an ideal place for going to school in the morning.

To think that she was able to prostrate herself in a place that’s essentially her
neighbourhood: the strength of her mind is astonishing. Naturally, I mean that in as a
compliment.

Amaniji-senpai’s home, unlike Rikka’s apartment, looked very lived-in.

There were flowers (I have no idea what type of flowers they were) in a vase on
top of the shoe shelf in the entryway, and the hallway was clean to the point where it
seemed that someone had just swept it.

It was strange as to why the living room gave off the impression of a mother
saying, “welcome home”, as it was just the two of us in the condo. It seemed that
everyone else who was living here was out working.

Following Amaniji-senpai’s lead, I entered her room.

It’s not like I had a hobby of evaluating other people’s rooms, but if I had to give
my opinion of her room – bland.

It was a clean and tidy room.

 Since it was this strange upperclassman, I was under the impression that her
room would be some strange jack-in-the-box, so I was disappointed by, what I guess
you could call, her unexpected room.

However, there were a lot of rainbowed-coloured trinkets in her traditional

Japanese tatami mat room, which did feel strange.

On the topic of strange things that I’ve noticed, how many pictures of rainbows
did she have decorating her room? Also catching my eye was the book with the
rainbow-coloured book cover on her bookshelf.

I mean, what can I say, I really love rainbows – that was what her room was
telling me.

“What are your thoughts on the room?”

“Eh?”

Since it was such an abrupt question by Amaniji-senpai, I was rather

discourteous and had her ask the question again. However, it seemed that Amaniji-
senpai didn’t particularly mind as she asked the question again.

“Our room, what’s Yuu-chan’s impression of it?”

“Err… Let’s see, it’s unexpectedly normal?”

Even though I was the one who said it, but unexpectedly normal? Why did I say
that?

Unexpectedly normal – that phrase contained a word that didn’t apply to

Amaniji-senpai, a word that the differently didn’t fit.

Although the word ‘unexpectedly’ is a compliment for Amaniji-senpai, its

connotation probably changed since it was attached to ‘normal’.

“Yeah, it’s surprisingly normal, right?”

Amanji-senpai appeared satisfied with my reply.

“We’re just, unfortunately, an unexpectedly normal person.”

 “That’s not true, I’ve seen just how eccentric you are. It’s a bit unreasonable and
unjustified to conclude that you’re not just based your room…”

“Ahaha, that certainly may be true. However, in our opinion, a person’s room is
reflective of who they are, and taking a peek into another person’s room is the single
best way of understanding their true personality. Their bookshelf, their clothes, their
accessories: wouldn’t you say that they give a good outline of what the person likes?
It’s both beautiful and dirty. You can also generally tell when a room’s hiding a secret
as well.”

“I see…”

“We were going to keep silent, but to be frank, when we was in observing your
room Yuu-chan, we were also trying to find the true self that you’ve hidden – not!”

“Now, now, for the time being, take a seat, kay?”, said Amaniji-senpai as she
took a cushion out for herself to sit on. I too also borrowed a cushion and sat down.

“Moving to a simple place like this: well, this was the reason why.”

“You mean you wanted for me to see this room?”

“That’s right. It was easier if you saw it. Our – or as you would say, the “true
nature of unexpectedly normal person”. And, emphasis on the word ‘normal’.”

The word that Amaniji-senpai made sure to emphasise shocked me.

Somehow, my impression of her was of a person who would never say words
like that in earnest.

It was surprising, among other things, that she’d call herself normal; it was so
strange to the point that it felt abnormal. It was a word that differently didn’t fit
Amaniji-senpai.

The shock to me was so big that I couldn’t even respond. A short period of
silence followed.

But then, as if to break that silence,

“We want to ask you a little something… Yuu-chan, you said that you’re
“normal”, right?”, said Amaniji senpai.
 ◆

“It’s better if you didn’t say those words. To not say things like, “you’re
normal”. In our opinion, see, it’s not a word that’s very positive.

“That’s right, words like ‘normal’, generally, aren’t compliments at all. Even so,
it seemed that we were normal. Normal: to phrase it in another way, ‘not special’.

“Viewing us from afar, we were someone who wasn’t special at all, someone
who had no personality whatsoever: we were simply Girl A.

“Aha, that’s a fierce retort from you, Yuu-chan. However, Yuu-chan, haven’t
you also thought of yourself like that before?

“That you were someone who was ‘more special than anyone else’.

“Was it the same for Yuu-chan as well? We see. You understand what we’re
talking about.

“Still, it was different for us. Although we did think all that of myself – we
didn’t have anything that we could call special, and from a distance we could only be
seen as someone who was personality-less. We were the very essence of ‘normal’.

“That’s not the case? Ahaha, thanks. That may be the case now. Yeah – only
now.

“In the beginning, we wanted to be “a special person” in a much simpler way.

We just wanted to be thought of as special.

“By our parents.

“Don’t make such a gloomy face. It’s not that big of a story. It’s pretty common.
It’s just the story of my father’s affair.

“Eh? It’s not a common story?

“We, well, that’s just how it was to me. At the time, I thought it was pretty
common. My father left us, so we thought that us and our mother weren’t someone
special to our father.

“Now that I think about it – this story of ours. You could say that it’s the cause
of making us the person we are today.
 “We were wrong as a kid, thinking that we didn’t have anything special. We may
have thought like that at that time due to viewing ourselves as someone who wasn’t
special.

“Then again, even if someone like that didn’t happen, we’re certain that we
would have eventually ended up being the same eccentric person that we are today.

“Wouldn’t you agree? We mean, it’s us after all, right?

“Ahaha. Anyway, so – from that day onwards, we tried to become someone

special.

“After deciding that, we thought to ourselves: what did it mean to be someone

special? The result – we had to be someone who was absolutely different from every
other person.

“To live as a special and unique person.

“However, we were told something. Right after our parents divorced. Back when
we were in the first year of middle school. By my teacher. On that day – during the
parent-teacher interview for course guidance.

“Amaniji-san’s ‘normal’.

“Those words by my teacher were probably meant as a compliment. That we

were a normal and good child. It was probably supposed to meant something like that.

“What do you think, Yuu-chan?

“Is that so? Japanese is quite hard, isn’t it? Or are we just weird?

“Hehe, right? Yay!

“We weren’t happy to be praised like that. Yeah, even if it was meant to be a
compliment. At that time, our mother didn’t say anything. Maybe our mother knew
how we saw those words. Maybe she didn’t. We don’t know.

“Either way, we didn’t think of it was a compliment. We thought that it was

normal to not be told stuff like “she is normal”. And, back then, we were wondering
why we was told something like that.
 “At first, I didn’t understand it’s significance. But then, I realised it right away.
That I was a worthless human being with no personality – that I was a normal child
who wasn’t special – that it was something bad.

“Your words are so kind, Yuu-chan.

“However, back then, there wasn’t anybody who tell us the things you’ve saying
now, Yuu-chan.

“Mother didn’t say anything either – that was the major turning point for us.

“As such, from that point onwards we came to think, “normal is no good”. Being
part of the masses means not being special. And so – we became a special person.

“Well, that’s just how it is. And now, like how Yuu-chan puts it, our identity has
now become like this.

“Yeah, that’s why we made our personality like this. There’s no one else like us.

“But, there’s no one else that thinks like us, right? There’s no one else who
wants to be special like this.

“Ahaha, right. That’s true. Everyone’s like this at least once. Thank goodness.

“But you know, we may have made a mistake back then. Or rather, we made a
misinterpretation.

“Yep, that’s right. To put it simply, the antonym of ‘normal’ isn’t ‘special’.

“The antonym of ‘normal’ is ‘abnormal’.

“For the young us, by the time we realised our mistake, we found ourselves
already in solitude.

““That child’s weird” was what others would say of us.

“Or in other words, abnormal… Yep, we became a ‘heretic’.

“That’s right, we were already past the stage of “normal is no good”.

“Hehe, but then in that sense we were already kind of unique, weren’t we?
 “And so, from that point onwards, we’ve been the way we are this whole time.
Even so, we had tried to push ourselves even further. Because we were special.

“Yeah, but from our point of view, we weren’t afraid of being misunderstood as
a ‘heretic’. The past us would have been pleased with the current us.

“Even if everyone around us was judging us, we wanted to be ‘special’.

“For example, we did things like this.

“Ahaha, isn’t it amazing? Nobody else is ever going to do things like getting
seventy-seven points on every test! Even now, we’re a bit prideful of this! By the
way, it’s still a work-in-progress.

“Subjects like Japanese are quite difficult, right? When it’s an essay, there’s no
chance at winning. We score 0 points on those.

“Grrr! We’re not an idiot!

“Ah… Yeah, in my case, we were treated as if we were some sort of tumour. It

was like they too would get infected if they got too close. Aside from that, it was great
for us back then.

“Back then, we experienced what it was like to be a special person – since we

were always alone.

“Eh, no way!?

“We, well, let us finish this funny old tale of ours. Even though it’s probably not
that particularly funny. No, although it was probably a tale of mistakes, we have no
regrets about it. Even now, we didn’t think that our past was bad.

“And then, when we entered high school, we had an encounter. That’s how we
became the final form of us, the present us.

“Yep, that’s right. It was the Eccentric Drama Club.

I – even though it was Amaniji-senpai’s story, for some reason I felt that I could
relate.
 How do I put it; it was similar my past.

It wasn’t to the same degree, but I too also thought that I was an amazingly
special person. I was certain of it.

And so, I was ill.

Ill with chuunibyou.

After listening to Amaniji-senpai’s story, it seemed that she too was also a
sufferer or sympathiser.

Still, given how far she takes it, I’m doubtful as to whether she could be
categorised as having chuunibyou. Then again, only someone with chuunibyou could
take it as far as she does.

She was as devoted to it as Rikka, and as ultimate of a patient as Shichimiya.

To be frank, I think that she’s amazing.

Normally, you wouldn’t be able to take it this far.

The reason I know all this is because I too once shared the same view as
Amaniji-senpai. However, in the end, I concluded: “Oh. I’m not special.”

Thinking back to it, I despaired a bit as I realised it.

Even though I believed that I was completely different from everyone else, I was
thinking of and doing the same things as everyone else. And thus, upon realising this,
I graduated from chuunibyou.

Unlike me though – Amaniji-senpai persisted.

Even now, she continues to persist.

It isn’t easy to be special.

It isn’t easy to keep being special.

And so, to be frank –

“You’re amazing.”
 Such were the words that came out.

“Huh? Amazing?”

“Well, as expected, Amaniji-senpai’s not normal at all.”

Given the situation, those words (which were intended to be a compliment)

could have been interpreted differently. However, it seemed that Amaniji-senpai
understood my intentions, as she let out a “hehe” with a smile.

“Is that so? How joyous. Even if it’s just a little, it’s great how you sympathise
with us. Normally, no one sympathises with us. Maybe you understand us, Yuu-chan,
since you’re looking at things in third person – or something like that.”

“…Personally, I don’t think that’s the case. Surely, anyone –”

“Hehe, Yuu-chan really is kind. However, reality’s a little harsher than that. A
heretic’s a villain simply because they are a heretic. Even if they didn’t do anything
wrong. Ah, but it was bad of us to trespass.”

“…Right. In that the case, I’ll do what’s normal to do and report that intrusion of
yours.”

“But! There was a legitimate reason for doing so! To meet with Yuu-chan!
Meeting Yuu-chan can’t be done via normal means!”

“If such a method of entering was acceptable, there would be thieves in my room
all the time!”

“Ooh, we see! Next time, we’ll make an appointment to enter from there!”

“That still against the law!”

“Is that so… Even so, we won’t give up. Something like giving up’s too
normal.”

“Are you just trying to sound cool with that pointless remark!?”

“No – we sincerely are sorry about what happened back then. Next time, we’ll
do our best to avoid violating the increasingly aggressive law!”

“Ah… normally you apologise…”

 “Hehe, normally!? Oh, oh, so we’ve prostrating!”

“In this situation, prostrating does feel like the normal thing to do…”

“Eh!? Un, understood! Prostrating it is!”

“Did prostrating’s normalness pass away[4]!?”

It’d be troubling if it became a star.

Furthermore, it’d be a terrible constellation.

I have absolutely no idea how I ended up on this line of thought.

Let’s see… That’s right, there was something I wanted to ask about.

“By the way, there’s something that I’m a little curious about – why do you refer
to yourself with the royal ‘we’? Why do you keep using such a unique way of
addressing yourself? Is the reason why related to the story from before as well?”

For now, before moving to the main issue at hand, I asked about this as a
preface.

I had been a little curious about it ever since we first met.

Was it because of something that happened back then, or was it because of it

being novel? Why did she decide to refer to herself like in third person?

“Ah, correct! Hehe, it’s cool, isn’t it, right? Since it’s normal to refer to yourself
in first person, we thought that it was necessary to do something more original!”

With her chest puffed out, Amaniji-senpai had a beautiful smile on her face as
she replied to me.

Well, I understand why she’s so pleased, as I too also thought that it was
Amaniji-senpai-like.

“Haha, that’s very Amaniji-senpai-like. Still, to be frank, it doesn’t seem like a

thing that you should be fussed over.”

“It is worth fussing over. We must always be unique! At first, we contemplated

using “nou(のう)”, but we stopped since no one else understood what we meant.”
 ““nou(のう)”…?”

“Yeah, nou(儂) [5].”

“It’s was a mispronunciation!?”

I mean, I sort of get it. Both “washi” and “nou” have an archaic ring when you
say it. In addition, “nou” certainly is quite original… it might even be more novel than
saying washi.

Still, it didn’t change the fact it was wrong.

Regardless, there was still something more important that I had yet to properly
ask about.

“Umm, one more thing. Why is the clubroom the principal’s office?”

Once again, I asked about something inconsequential.

Since I was thinking about unrelated things, I ended up unconsciously asking

about something pointless…

Then again, that question of mine was probably inevitable, since it was
something that I had also been very curious about.

“Guess Yuu-chan really is a strange person after all. What a high-level

question.”

“You mean up till now it hadn’t been high-levelled!?”

“Well, yeah. That’s what we said. As for the clubroom being the principal’s
office, it’s because the principal’s the club advisor. We’ve sorry that we couldn’t
betray your expectations.”

“Even if I did expect it, I still would have been shocked!”

Our advisor’s the principal! Our advisor’s the principal!

And that’s why we’re in the principal’s office! And that’s why we’re in the
principal’s office!
 I was so surprised that I retorted twice in my mind. Seriously, anything could
happen at this school.

“Really? If you say so. Still, it makes us pleased. It’s complicated, but long story
short, the principal is looking after us now.”

An embarrassed “Ahaha” leaked out from of Amaniji-senpai’s dry smile.

“The principal made various arrangements for us to attend. Seriously, it was

great that the principal was so rich in personality. You know, if it wasn’t for the
principal, we definitely wouldn’t have chosen to enrol at this school. Even the fact the
school was right next to this place wouldn’t have swayed us!”

“……”

On the contrary, I’ve heard that some people, after having met the principal,
decided against enrolling here.

But, well, I could sort of get where Amaniji-senpai was coming from, since I too
was swayed by school’s ethos of freedom (or excessive freedom).

Now, however – it was time to raise that.

For some reason there always seemed to be some sort of complicated question
on my mind. I must have some sort of anxiety disorder, for me to be this prone to
worrying… To be honest, that might actually be the case, but even so I’m still
concerned about it.

Concerned about the main issue, the thing I really need to ask about – the thing
I’ve yet to ask about properly.

“Um, to be honest, there’s one more thing that I’d like to ask about. Is that
okay?”

“Ah, is that so? It’s not like we particularly mind how many questions there are:
go ahead.”

Since I didn’t want the mood too heavy, I chose my words as carefully as
possible.

“It’s about the script; I’m a bit concerned about it. Although Rikka had said to
change the script with a bang, it’d be perfectly fine if you disregarded her. After all,
you seem to have your circumstances. To tell you the truth, telling you this was the
reason why I returned.”

“……”

Silence.

I had tried to avoid setting a heavy mood, but it seems that things didn’t go over
smoothly…

After about five seconds of silence, Amaniji-senpai made a wry smile.

“Ahaha, so that’s what was on your mind? Sorry, that’s not we meant at all,
see… No, yeah, that was a lie. It’s a fact that we were unsure of what to do about it.
But it’s fine now. We’re incorporating DevTru Rikka-chan’s idea! We have to stake
everything on the more interesting option!”

“U-umm, if you really do have circumstances, there’s no need for you to overdo
things: it’s fine. After all, we shouldn’t be inconveniencing you with this… Besides,
Rikka will understand if we tell her that the setting can’t be changed.”

“It’s not troublesome at all, something like this. Rather, we’ve the one who
should be sorry for burdening everyone… Hmm, it’s troubling, since our facial
expressions can’t capture just how sorry we are. Right then, how would you like for
us to commit seppuku[6]!”

“What kind of idiosyncrasy is that!? Don’t kill yourself off all of a sudden
please! Rather, don’t stab your stomach with a mechanical pencil please!”

The heavy mood! In one go, it’s been reset! You’re seriously disgustingly ill!

To suggest seppuku… Ah, persuasion…?

I mistook persuasion for seppuku – how embarrassing.

Even the heavy mood from before was more preferable than this.

But, then again, me making that mistake may have been a good thing, since the
mood’s changed for the better.
 “But yeah, you’re right. Let us properly explain what the circumstances are
surrounding the play. We at least owe you that much, Yuu-chan, given how indebted
we are you for helping us out.”

“If it’s something that’s hard for you to talk about, there’s no need for you to…”

“Ahaha, there’s no need to worry. It’s not something that’s hard for us to talk
about. Let’s see, where should we start?”

To show that she was thinking, Amaniji-senpai crossed her arms.

“Right – first things first, we should probably start by talking about the script. In
regard to changing the script, it’s true that we were a little hesitant… But Yuu-chan,
there’s no need for you to worry about that anymore, okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

Hearing my response, Amaniji-senpai smiled. She then resumed talking again.

“This script – to tell you the truth, we weren’t the sole authors.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes, and so for us to just arbitrarily change the script – that was what crossed
our minds. It was a collaborative effort to come up with the scenes of the script. And
so, the scenes – wouldn’t the scenes be special to its other author?”

“…Yeah, I guess.”

“We want to cherish special things. And hence we were a little hesitant. Ahh,
what would be the right thing to do?”

“……”

“Still, we, without a doubt, want for things to go in an interesting direction. That
feeling was, and still is, true. So that’s why, without deleting or altering the existing
scenes – we will add. Since it’s special to that person, it’s impossible for us to do
something like deleting a scene, and so the only way to make things more interesting
is to add new scenes. That’s why, Yuu-chan – it’s all fine, there’s no need to worry.”

“Umm… about the script, who was its other author?”

 “My upperclassman. Who has already graduated –”

Once again, Amaniji-senpai swallowed her words.

As if to signify her indecision, her eyes were closed.

However, she then opened her eyes slowly, and –

“But now… Senpai’s no longer here anymore.”

– were the words she said as she bit her lip.

The significance of those words –

Although her words were ambiguous, it was still possible tell that something had
happened.

…Whatever it was that had happened in the past – it was probably something
sad…

It’s probably the reason why she’s been this desperate to perform the play… It
also explains both her fervour to perform the play when we first met, and her feelings
of unease she’s constantly had in regard to the script. It was why she was abrupt, and,
above all, in a hurry.

I couldn’t find them – the right words to respond to her.

Unintentionally, however, my face told a different story.

It clearly leaked how I felt.

“Ahaha, it’s pointless to worry about it, Yuu-chan. …It’s something inevitable
after all.”

“…I’m sorry. But, even so –”

Although I managed to choke out a reply, I wasn’t able to stop my voice from
quivering.

Concerned by my response, Amaniji-senpai made an effort to be cheerful.

 “It’s fine it’s fine! Senpai – Catgirl-senpai, as you could probably tell from her
nickname, was a very strange person. She was the personification of interestingness.”

Choosing her words carefully, Amaniji-senpai continued.

“She truly was a great upperclassman. It’s no exaggeration to say that the reason
why we haven’t changed much at all during high school was because of our meeting
with Catgirl-senpai.”

“……”

“We liked her so much that we proposed to her.”

“You’re exaggerating, right!?’

“That’s right! The problem past.”

…That response had a troubling twist.

It’s double meaning. Did she mean a problem from the past, or that the past itself
was the problem?

“Well, although I’ve been joking about it – she really did save us back then. To
someone like us, she was kind. In fact, she drowned us joy. It was the first time
someone treated us like that. And that’s why we proposed to her.”

“…What was the joke from before then…?”

“Haha, we were joking about the marriage. It was a trial from Onee-san here to
help you, Yuu-chan, master how to make amazing retorts faster.”

“……”

Until now, it was hard to find the chance to make such a retort against her…
How extraordinary.

“Anyway, such was our benefactor and master, Catgirl-senpai. Even when there
was a script, she was always happy to ad-lib, transforming the play into something
more fun every single time. As long as the core parts of the play weren’t incorrect, it
was fine. Frankly speaking, DevTru Rikka-chan’s idea to take things in a more
interesting direction would be something that Senpai would have approved of with
pleasure.”
 She was extraordinary, but. She was merely joking, but.

Amaniji-senpai – she was a kind upperclassman.

I thoughtlessly overstepped my bounds and heard about something sensitive – it

was truly inexcusable, for me to use the mood like that.

“…Is that so?”

And so.

Because of those feelings for that upperclassman, and the memories that have
accumulated as a result –

“Anyway, that’s why – that’s why we wanted to do to something like this for our
last performance. We really sorry for getting you caught up in our club’s
circumstances. And for telling you a story that would make you feel sympathy for us.”

It’s why Amaniji-senpai had been so desperate to perform the place, and was
willing to take whatever means was necessary.

It’s why she called out to Rikka and me.

For me to not feel sympathy for her was an impossible task.

“That’s… personally, I’m glad that I’m able to help you out.”

“Really? If that’s how you feel about it, then we’re glad. We’re truly delighted to
be able to talk to you about all this, Yuu-chan.”

“If it makes you feel delighted, then I’m glad too.”

“Ahaha, and sorry for making the mood so serious with my story. That isn’t our
character at all. We should be saying something more strange!”

“Not really, and I’m not sure why you’re so fixated on that…”

I’m starting to worry that others would say that I only associate with people who
say weird things.

Now that I think about it, out of the people I know only Nibutani doesn’t say
weird things.
 Although it would be a mistake, I’m wanting to talk with Nibutani.

What a blunder…!

“Although we’ve told Yuu-chan about it, we’d appreciate it if you kept this a
secret from the other two. We wouldn’t want for them to be concerned about this.”

“Got it. I’ll keep secret about it.”

In response to my words, Amaniji-senpai let out a smile.

And in order to not erase that smile, I’ll have to give it my all for the play.

On that note, however, there’s another problem.

In regard to the guerrilla nature of the play – the timing for raising that matter for
today had just passed.

Well, there’s still time, so guess I’ll discuss things with her again tomorrow.

“Now then, if Yuu-chan’s free, let’s think about the ‘Dark Flame Master’ setting
together! Together – let’s properly think about it and make it interesting!”

“…Yes!”

“By the way, Yuu-chan, what’s the Dark Flame Master?”

…That? It was my creation.

That’s right, that was my creation, and so we had to think about it properly
together.

“…My, it’s my sealed power that I’ve since lost.”

Despite it making me feel a little nihilistic in a chuuni-like way, I rambled on

about my embarrassing creation to Amaniji-senpai at length.

The greatest redeeming factor was that Amaniji-senpai was, without laughing at
anything in particular, listening to my story seriously.
 Rather, she seemed to long for something similar, saying: “What a strange
power! We wish that we had a strange power like that.” Guess Amaniji-senpai was
interested in having something like that as well.

We must have mixed in some similar silly conversations as we added to the

script, as quite some time had passed.

When I turned to look at the clock, it was almost time for me to go.

Since I made a promise to go home with the others, I had to head back to school
again.

Then again, since the two of us had worked on the script right up to the point
when school closes, we just managed to finish the revised script.

“Phew, it’s finally finished, isn’t it?”, I said as I took a breather.

As if to thank me, Amaniji-senpai, with a tender voice, responded:

“Thanks for your hard work. Surely, the script has improved manyfold! Anyone
who doesn’t think this script is interesting – the said patron must have plain tastes!”

In that case, what we had then was a terrible story.

[1] A ‘Web Genie’ based on the game Twenty Questions.

[2] Originally this pun was an abbreviation of Magical Demon Duchess (魔法魔王少
女) into 魔々女 (read as 魔魔女), which then plays off the word for witch (魔女).
Since there isn’t a good direct translation of this pun, I’ve taken a bit of creative
liberty instead.

[3] An Amanojaku (天邪鬼, ‘heavenly evil spirit’) is a youkai who is able to provoke
a person’s darkest desires and tempt them do act on their wicked impulses.

[4] A pun on the Japanese euphemism to die. The original Japanese text, なくなった
(nakunatta), usually means “to lose/disappear/be consumed”, but can also mean “to
die”. This is then linked to the idea of becoming a star, the Japanese euphemism of
dying.

[5] The kanji (儂; the personal pronoun used generally by the elderly) is usually
pronounced as わし(washi), but can also be pronounced as のう(nou).
[6] This following exchanged is based on a pun between 切腹 (a Japanese suicide
ritual to die with honour) and 説伏 (persuasion), as they are both pronounced seppuku
(せっぷく).

Chapter 6: Sleeping Funny Man

“You see… even if I utilised the power of the Devilish Truth Stare, the pollution
of the Earth wouldn’t immediately cease. It’s not going to be good if this
continues…! Ugh… Yuuta, you head there first…!”September 3rd. Today, school
only lasted until noon – right now, classes were finished for the day.There were 6
days till the cultural festival.

There was barely any time left to practice for the play at all.

Because of how little time we had left, I wanted to head to practice as soon as
possible. However, when I asked Rikka to come along, she rejected me with that
amusing line.

Incidentally, the way she was holding the cleaning broom with both hands made
her look like a hero who was about to depart. It was very cool.

“Ah, right. You were on cleaning duty today. Got it, I’ll head there first. I’ll go
tell our upperclassmen that you’ll be a bit late due to cleaning duty.”

“Roger, operation ‘Earth’s Normalisation’ start! Incidentally, Yuuta. The Earth

isn’t currently under attack right now!?”

“Where did that come from!? No, it not! In fact, it has never been attacked! Not
even once! Why would you even think that it is!?”

Then again, to be fair, there were lots of movies and anime where the Earth got
attacked!

If the Earth didn’t get attacked, the story in those works would never begin!

“I see. However, I often hear stories about the Earth being attacked. Does that
mean that there’s lots of people with the desire to attack the Earth?”

“Don’t put things like that! There’s nobody with such a desire!”
 “In that case, does that mean Earth-san has a strong desire to be attacked? I see,
so those desires are played out for Earth-san in stuff like movies. Roger, it has been
understood!”

“You think Earth-san’s a M…?”

And, like that, we got swept up by the mood and started chatting.

“HEY! START CLEANING ALREADY!”

Rumour has it that she was the dance club’s future president.

She was also the popularly-supported committee chairman in charge of our

class’ program for this cultural festival.

She was the girl who boasts an overwhelming popularity with the boys of our
class.

Within our class, she was the class king – with a demon-like expression,
Nibutani Shinka came by to reproach us.

Or to assault us.

We-we’re going to get killed…!

I was trembling with fear to the point where I couldn’t even let out my voice.
Rikka, however, was undaunted, delivering a firm reply to Nibutani.

“Mori-sama, we were in the middle of a very important discussion. The

discussion of Earth’s future. Also, the discussion of our future together.”

“You still weren’t finished with that!?”

I was so surprised that my voice came out.

Or rather, what are you declaring so jovially, Rikka-san!

No, wait, eh!? Hearing all that does makes me happy though!

“Pardon? Earth? There’s no point worrying about something like that! When it’ll
explode it’ll explode, and there’s nothing that can be done about it! Now get to
cleaning!”
 “Grrr. Looks like it can’t be helped, Yuuta. See you soon.”

“Oh, okay. See you.”

Parting with those words, Rikka trotted out of the classroom to go clean
diligently.

I was left behind. I could more or less foresee how things will develop from here
on out, and it was scary…

Nibutani’s facial expression towards me reminded me of a Hannya mask[1].

How did she become even scarier than before…?

“But aren’t the two of you flirting a bit too much? Are you a, what’s it called, an
oranyan[2] when people are around?”

“What part of that conversation just then was us flirting!?”

It was only about the Earth! Moreover, that only flowed on from Rikka’s
outlandish conversation starter!

Also, what did you just say? That in public I was an oranyan? Looks like
Nibutani’s vocabulary was still as ancient as ever…

“Anyone who saw that conversation of yours would have thought that the two of
you were flirting.”

Supporting her arms with a broom, Nibutani stared at me with a normie-

despising cold gaze, before letting out a deep “haaa”.

Were things really to the point where you felt the need to sigh so
exaggeratedly…?

It was merely a discussion about Earth.

“By the way, there’s something I wanted to ask – it’s about what Takanashi-
san’s up to. She’s come up to me and said “I am still trying to master the dance, but
for the time being I will practice at home, as I cannot make the dance rehearsals. Is
permission granted?” What is that all about?”

“Why do you keep slipping impersonations in every now and then…”

 Furthermore, her impersonations do seem to subtly resemble the real deal…

Then again, it may have just been the case that Rikka was easy to imitate.

“She was lending a bit of a hand to help out an upperclassman with her play. As
a result, she ended up being the leading actress of the play. As expected, it’s a
problem, isn’t it?”

“Mmm, not really. Takanashi-san: she’s quite skilled. Even I was surprised by
how good she was. It’s not really a problem if she skips out on practice, since all
she’ll be doing is perfecting the dance even more. Still, why is she helping out with
the play on such short notice?”

“Well, it’s a long story.”

“Hmm, is that so… Takanashi-san, she’s changed a little,” murmured Nibutani.

It seemed that those were her true thoughts.

It was rather surprising to be hearing those words from her.

“When I first met with her – I guess you could say that I had a few concerns
about her, but it seems that she’ll be fine now. Even without me rehabilitating her.”

“You were still intending on rehabilitating her, huh…”

“Wasn’t that obvious? However, if things turn sour – if she becomes Dark
Takanashi-san – then her rehabilitation will commence straightaway.”

“…“Dark Takanashi-san”, huh. Right, guess from your perspective she’s

changing in a good way.”

“Hmm? Yeah, I guess. It’s only natural that I want to rehabilitate her, since it’s
irritating how she and Kazari keep pestering me with “Mori-sama Mori-sama”.”

…Wow, really?

Does that really happen? I’ve never once seen it happen, but it’s Rikka after
all. She’s incredible.

“Still, it’s just by a bit, but my way of thinking has changed.”

 “Way of thinking?”

“– I, if back then, if I too had someone like you, someone who would stay with
me – maybe things like my dark history would have never occurred.”

“…That’s –”

“Just kidding! For the sake of maintaining White Takanashi-san, you need to
keep being her wonderful boyfriend, Geruzoni.”

“Eh?”

I was surprised by how normal that was.

It wasn’t her words that surprised me, however – it was her smile. Nibutani…
When did she become such a nice person? Maybe it was during summer vacation.

But when we met during the summer vacation, it didn’t seem like she had
changed.

“Hey, what’s with the surprised face! It’s making me mad. I’m geki oko-stic
finaleality punpun dream[3] mad.”

“…That choice of words is quite chuunibyou-ish.”

It was like saying ‘Eternal Force Blizzard’.

“Eh, really!? Ah… AH, I’m geki oko punpun maru mad!”

“It’s too late to rephrase things in a cuter way.”

“Drop dead!”

As she said that, Nibutani looked down at me in her usual sadistic attitude.

I personally hated the masochistic feeling I got from our exchanges, but, yeah, as
expected, our exchange just doesn’t feel right without it.

“Enough! You’re a hinderance to cleaning, shoo!”

 “Ahh, right. Sorry for interrupting. Oh, right, there’s something that came to
mind when you were extremely angry, and it’s about the play – if you’d like,
Nibutani, you should come and see the play. I’m also appearing it in.”

“Geruzoni’s taking part? Ahahahahahahahaha!”

Nibutani was bursting with laughter, with her hands on her belly.

For her to laugh so much… It seemed that for her, me acting was something
laughable…

“I can see it already! You doing something like forgetting your lines halfway in
and adding to your dark history! I’m looking forward to–!”

“Something like that won’t happen! I’m quite confident in my acting skills: I
play house everyday–”

And, as the words left my mouth, I realised what I accidently let slip out.

As per usual, I make mistakes when I talk with Nibutani.

Moreover, it wasn’t just a careless mistake, it one of my biggest mistakes of my

life. If a mistake like this happened in the workplace, I would be fired.

Naturally, when Nibutani heard my mistake, she didn’t miss the chance to let
loose her sadistic smile.

“Ohh? So you play house. Hmhm, what, are you pretending to be a newlywed?”

“You-you’re wrong!”

“What is it then? Playing out a second marriage?”

“There’s no such scenario in playing house like that!”

You know, when you put things like that, you’re making it seem as if society
views make-believe as a joke. I will definitely never forgive you for that. You need to
be more romantic.

“Well, even if it was about you re-marrying, or about you pretending to be

Saigou-san[4], or about whatever–”
 “What the hell’s “pretending to be Saigou-san”!?”

“You’re being so picky with every single thing! It’s a big mistake if you think
that it’s a good idea to retort to everything!”

In response to my light retort, Nibutani blew up.

With a backhanded blow – it was my friend, the retort. It seems the chain of set-
ups has been broken.

“AN.Y.WAY! Go away, shoo. Go loaf somewhere else.”

You were the one who called out to me first… But if I actually said that, she’ll
unleash her sadistic side again, and so I decided to leave things at that.

“…Okay, sure. Well then, do your best with cleaning.”

“Geruzoni too, with, well, the play. In hang there?”

After saying that, Nibutani turned her back towards me and started to clean.

With what seemed to be words of encouragement from Nibutani, I left the

classroom happy, thanking her for support in my heart.

As soon as I left the classroom, for some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about
how enjoyable that brief after-school exchange was.

Once I was able to leave both my regrets and the classroom behind, I
contemplated about dropping by class 1-3 to invite Shichimiya to head to the club
together with me. Unfortunately, however, Shichimiya was also on cleaning duty
today.

Since the two of them were both busy, I had no choice but to traverse through
the school building, which was becoming increasingly lively due to the after-school
preparations for the cultural festival, by myself. I lightly jogged my way to the
principal’s office.

Given that I was alone today, unlike yesterday I arrived the principal’s office
right away.
 I was now before the principal’s office – like yesterday, it was dead silent here.

Since it’s quite possible that the principal is here this time around, I took a few
deep breaths.

– I’m ready.

I thought I was ready, but as it turns out, taking deep breaths did not help ease
me at all. I was still rigid with nervousness when I knocked on the principal’s door
twice.

Due to my extreme nervousness, I made very loud knocks.

More importantly, however: what would be an appropriate first thing to say to

the principal?

As I deliberated in my head as to whether the principal would understand if I

introduced myself as a helper to the Eccentric Drama Club, a few seconds had passed.
There was no response from the room.

I opened the door and looked inside.

It seemed that all my worries were all for nothing, as the principal was absent
from the office today as well.

And – just like yesterday, I was greeted by the same surreal sight.

In the principal’s office by herself, Kumin-senpai was sleeping, with drool

hanging from her mouth.

Every time I first catch sight of her, this person’s been asleep…

There was a point of difference from yesterday though, in terms of the pillow…
Is that her personal pillow?

Either way, given how defenceless she was, I was a little worried that someone
would come while she’s asleep and attack her.

I contemplated about leaving her asleep, but it would be a problem for my sanity
(not because I was on the verge of attacking her, but because I was worried about the
drool) if she kept sleeping. I guess I should wake her up after all…
 “Since you’re asleep, sorry”, I mentally apologised as I approached the
defenceless Kumin-senpai.

Wow, she’s completely full of openings… S-she might as well be naked.

With thoughts like that entering my head, my mind was thrown into complete
disarray.

Deep breaths… Regaining my calmness, I adjusted my voice to match the same

volume I had the last time I woke her up.

“Umm, there’s drool hanging out.”

…She didn’t wake up.

It appears that she was in a much deeper sleep than last time.

Hmm, why was that the case?

Still, regardless of why, I couldn’t leave her like this, and so I grabbed onto her
shoulders lightly and shook her.

“Excuse me, pleeease wake up, you have drool hanging out from your mouth.”

Seemingly in response to my shaking, Kumin-senpai woke up, slowly raising her

body as she let out “Kayy” in a half-awake voice.

As soon as she moved – I released my grip. This was a delicate situation, after
all.

At the same time, Kumin-senpai – who had prepared a handkerchief in her hand
in advance – wiped off the drool from her face, before turning her face nimbly in my
direction. She then blinked twice, as if to confirm the current situation.

Then, while staring at me with eyes still half-shut, she opened her mouth.

“…Was that just now an interplate earthquake? Or was it an intraplate

earthquake?”

“Aren’t you overreacting!? It was just a just a light jolt! Moreover, with the way
you phrased that question, it doesn’t sound like you believe that an earthquake had
happened at all! Aren’t you being too calm!?”
 “…So, it wasn’t an earthquake? …Zzz”

“No wait, please wait a minute! Please don’t fall asleep again now that you’re
relieved!”

“Hehe, there’s no need to worry. I was merely saying “zzz”.”

“You were saying it after all!? Do you think that it’s fine to say something like
that in the middle of the conversation!?”

“Hehe, there’s no need to worry. It was a set-up for a joke – I made a mistake,
and so I pretended to be asleep[5].”

“Are you setting up for another joke!?”

Was this entire exchange a setup!?

That’s amazing, Kumin-senpai…!

She’s only just gotten up, and yet she’s already prepared the set-up for a joke…
It was marvellous to the point where it made me want to repeat our exchange again.

But even though it was enjoyable – sigh.

Well, then again, I was just thinking how fun it was waking her up again. I’m
low-key looking forward to doing this again, if there’s a next time.

As Kumin-senpai rubbed her eyes to wake herself up, I quietly took a seat.

I sat opposite of Kumin-senpai. It’s not like I could sit right next to her, after all.

“Yeah, I’m up, I’m up. Oodning.”

“…A greeting that’s not even seen in manga and novels!?”

Another setup!?

Is this too setting-up for joke!?

“Ahaha, sorry, sorry. I’m still a bit half-asleep. Good morning!”

 As Kumin-senpai said that, she stretched out her body, letting out an “Mmmm”.
She still looked quite sleepy. That “Mmmm” was pretty cute…

Moreover, although she’s my upperclassman, she didn’t look that much older
than me. Her face when she’s just woken up was quite cute too.

Although she had a short stature, her height wasn’t short to the point where her
figure could be described as childlike (in fact, her figure was the complete opposite of
childlike). It was just her face – which, for some reason, reminded me of the elder
younger sister – that was extremely childlike. Although I’ve previously used this
metaphor to describe someone else, there really was no better way to describe her
appearance than “resembling a princess of a ruined country”.

She felt like someone you had protect.

“Good morning, Kumin-senpai. Um, I’m not sure if you want to hear this from
an underclassman that you’ve just met, but… it’s probably better for you to not be
sleeping where you’re so defenceless…”

“Hmm? Ah, you’re worried about me! Thanks for the concern~. Since I can
sleep anywhere, I do get careless. I’m usually fast asleep in the nurse’s office though,
so there’s no need for you to be worried about me, kay~?”

… Ah, I see. So back then, it was also her.

But, back then, wasn’t there – before I could finish my thought, Kumin-senpai
raised the thing that was on my mind herself.

“But, then again, it’s not like the nurse’s office is completely safe either. Once in
a while, I get doodled on. It’s annoying when Hideri-chan does that.”

“Good grief,” were what her shoulders seemed to say as she shrugged them.

I see, so it was Amaniji-senpai’s handiwork.

Although the doodle was probably made with a non-permanent marker, I could
still understand Kumin-senpai’s annoyance. It would have still been embarrassing to
be walking around without realising that there was that on her forehead.

Looks like I was right to leave a mirror for her back then.
 “I think I saw something like that during one of the times I visited the nurse’s
office: was that Amaniji-senpai’s handiwork? It is Amaniji-senpai-like to write
something troublesome like ‘demon’ on someone’s forehead…”

“Eeeh, you saw that? Oof, how embarrassing.”

Kumin-senpai didn’t seem embarrassed as all as she held her forehead.

It may have been the case that she actually was embarrassed since she got a little
red in the face. Still, as she wasn’t panicking or anything, it was a little hard to tell.

She appeared a bit too relaxed.

“Hideri-chan tells me that my looks aren’t very amusing; when she can she’ll
doodle on my face when I’m asleep. Me, am I really that dull? What do you think,
Yuu-chan?”

…What a difficult question to answer.

If she was going to be pleased it, I’d be happy to tell her that her looks were
amusing. Still, when you think about it, people aren’t normally pleased to hear that
they look amusing….

Then again, judging from her words just now, it seems that she’s worried about
not being amusing. Perhaps telling her that she’s amusing is the right thing to do.

“Er, well, I guess it’s a little amusing…”

“Eh? Yuu-chan, that’s horrible, Yuu-chan: I’m on the verge of tears here.”

It was a trap.

I was called horrible…! However, I had countermeasures planned out for

something like this!

“No, what I meant by that was that it you shouldn’t worry, since it’s only a little
amusing.”

“Eh!? That’s horrible! Me, I am amusing!”

It was a double-layered trap.

 How formidable…! Still, I was only limiting it to her looks when I called her
amusing – rather than about her looks, it seems her intention was to create the setup
for the joke; to come and deliver that punchline… As expected, she really is a strange
person.

Guess in that sense, it’s no wonder that she gets along with Amaniji-senpai so
well.

“By the way, Kumin-senpai, I’m a bit curious – why are you in this club?”

“Heh heh, it’s because I’m Hideri-chan’s best friend!”

Kumin-senpai answered with her chest full of pride.

To Kumin-senpai, this apparently was something to be proud of.

“Hideri-chan doesn’t have any other friends. That’s why I’m her best friend!”

“Don’t say something so cruel so nonchalantly!”

“Huh? But I don’t think that’s a terrible thing, having only a few friends. I too
don’t have many either.”

Kumin-senpai gave me a gentle smile.

That’s true, I thought.

I wasn’t proud of the fact that the number of friends I had could be counted with
both hands, but I wasn’t overly pessimistic about it either.

Kumin-senpai – she gave off a frivolous impression, but it very well may be the
case that this girl, at her core, was a strong-hearted person.

“…You’re right. I’m sorry for saying something like that…”

“Ah, there’s no need for you to apologise, Yuu-chan. It’s unprecedented how
difficult Hideri-chan is!”

“……”

I didn’t point it out, but the nonchalant way that it was phrased was extremely
cruel.
 Then again, in my eyes, Amaniji-senpai really was a rather unprecedented
person in various ways.

She was a strange, distinctive, different, eccentric, unique, and peculiar person.

“Hideri-chan is, well, like you see, very individualistic – but I like that part of
her very much~. She’s the world’s number one Hideri-chan.”

“The world’s number one Hideri-chan.”

I tried repeating it, but it still didn’t make much sense.

Perhaps what she’s trying to say was that the only Amaniji-senpai-like person
was Amaniji-senpai.

It is said that there are three other people in the world who resemble you, but
that’s definitely not the case for her. I’m doubtful as to whether a doppelganger can
even exist for her.

“Either way, it’s fun being together with Hideri-chan, and so I joined the same
club as her. I’m not very good at stuff like acting though~.”

“Haha, she’s certainly not a person that you’d get tired of.”

“Eeeh, is that so? Well then, I’ll turn the same question to you then: what made
you want to help out this strange club, Yuu-chan?”

“Strange… Err, well, it’s – it was because Amaniji-senpai was troubled before
my eyes.”

When it comes down to it, my reason for helping was simple – it reached me.
That hidden, earnest side of Amaniji-senpai.

The things she told me yesterday – it was the reason why I had to help Amaniji-
senpai out.

I wanted to help her out. Her feelings had definitely reached me.

In addition, I wasn’t sure why, but I was both curious and anxious about
Amaniji-senpai’s circumstances.

Perhaps – her circumstances had resonated within me somewhere.

 “I see, it’s because Yuu-chan is very kind~. Surely you’re Mr. Popular~.
Hehehe, alright, now let’s talk about love[6] for a bit.”

“Koi?”

I tilted my head upon hearing that unexpected mysterious word.

Did she want to talk about carp?

“While it’s true that I do love to sleep with a Slyly[7] plush body pillow, and that
I did want to talk about carp – I wanted to talk not about koi, but love!”

Kumin-senpai was mad. She leaned forward in anger.

Wh-what a strange, entrancing sensation.

The gentle Kumin-senpai getting mad – what a feeling of ecstasy!

…Well, see, even though I couldn’t help but have thoughts like that, it didn’t
mean that I suddenly mutated into a pervert. I was just so surprised to the extent that it
made me think things like that.

Please don’t misunderstand; I’m not like that at all.

“Well, I guess boys do play dumb when it comes to the word called love~.”

“No, that’s not the case at all. Even men love talking about love. In fact, men are
nothing but enthusiastic when it comes to talking about love.”

“Excellent. Girls too also nothing but enthusiastic when it comes to talking about
love. Especially when it’s about someone else.”

“I see. Everyone wants to be in love! Hmm? I seem to have heard something

strange added there at the end…”

Yeah, it appears I’m getting a little caught up by the mood. I feel willing to talk
about anything right now!

Hrm, it seems that her being mad just now triggered Ecstasy Mode in me.
 Henceforth, a new setting for me, Yuuta (Ecstasy Mode), which triggers when
Kumin-senpai gets mad, has been established! The use of this mode from now
onwards, however, is forbidden.

Kumin-senpai also noticed that I had entered this state. She made a serious-
looking face and stared right into my eyes.

“Well then, let us begin our talk about love.”

“Go ahead.”

“Rikka-chan, Satone-chan, Hideri-chan, and me: who do you like out of us four,
Yuu-chan?”

“Rikka!”, I declared definitively.

There was no hesitation behind my response. This is the power of Ecstasy Mode!

…This person, what is she making me say all of a sudden!?

“Reject, I got rejected…”

“Ah, no, that’s… Err, well, see, me, I’m currently going out with Rikka, and so
that’s why… umm… so it’s not that I hate you, Kumin-senpai, and of course not
Shichimiya or Amaniji-senpai either…”

“What!?”

“You didn’t know!?”

“It’s the first I’ve heard of this. Is that so, I didn’t know.”

It seemed that this was a revelation for her. Since Amaniji-senpai knew, I
thought for sure that Kumin-senpai also knew, but it seems that wasn’t the case.

Normally, you wouldn’t know about the relationship status of your

underclassman… Only now did that thought cross my mind.

Then again, it’s not like it’s going to troublesome if she knows, so as long as
she’s fine with learning about my relationship with Rikka only now, there shouldn’t
be any problems.
 “I see~. Now then, have you kissed?”

“……”

Kumin-senpai had a huge grin as she asked me that strange question.

She was like an annoying uncle…

Unfortunately, it seems that my time in Ecstasy Mode has come into an end. It
seems that I can only remain transformed for three minutes. From now onwards, I’m
my normal self.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed, Yuu-chan. Isn’t it something that everyone

can do~?”

“While it is something everyone can do, your question is unfortunately one I

cannot answer.”

I’m invoking my right to remain silent. Even if what she was telling me was true,
there’s no need for her to know.

“I haven’t done it~.”

“Were you expecting me to speak up about my own experience since you were
frank about yours!?”

“Hideri-chan hasn’t either~.”

“Even if you’re frank about someone else experience, the answer’s still no!”

It was revealed without permission too.

Poor Amaniji-senpai.

“Hmm, to not playing along and lay bare your heart: you’re heartless, Yuu-
chan[8].”

“Even a nonchalantly delivered bad pun won’t help. I have no desire to be

sympathetic to such an appeal.”

“Well, whatever. There’s a scene in the play where Cinderella and the Prince
kisses, so I can see for myself whether you have kissed before then~.”
 “There’s a scene like that!?

But yesterday, I checked over the script, and there wasn’t such a scene present!?

As I was quickly working myself up into a panic, Kumin-senpai – who had a

large grin on her face – placed the script on the table. The script was flipped open to
the page with the scene in question.

“Here, at the very end. There’s a heart, right? That’s the scene.”

“W-wh-why is the only scene that borrows from the setting of the
original Cinderellathe ending!? N-no, no way! Besides, what’s to say that the heart
signifies a k-kiss…!”

I was in such a state of turmoil that I started quivering. I was fumbling my words
too.

Eh!? Wait, you were being serious!?

“It’s a kiss~.”

“……!”

Kumin-senpai made that remark definitively, unimpeded by my inner turmoil.

Her complete lack of hesitation in making that remark – or you could say, in
talking about someone else’s affairs[9] – helped me to come back to my senses.

For the time being, let’s put the subject of whether I’ve missed – damn it, I’m
still shaken.

Let’s put the subject of whether I’ve kissed on hold for now.

“Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? Since you’re going out with her. Honestly though, I’d
would have been fine with two girls sharing a passionate kiss~.”

“Just because there is a large demand for such a thing, it –”

As I was in the middle of my sentence, I remembered.

I remembered – the story from yesterday.

 “What’s wrong, Yuu-chan? Your face is all tensed up. Do you find girls kissing
disgusting?”

As usual, my face was quite honest with how I was feeling.

Her secret… Maybe it would be better for me to come out and talk about it, since
I wasn’t able to hide it.

“No, that’s not what I meant at all – I’m sorry for being unclear… Yesterday, I
heard… I heard a little about your upperclassman… and so I… or rather, for me to do
that…”

“Ah, did you hear it from Hideri-chan? Right, right, Catgirl-senpai was the
person who was meant to take Hideri-chan’s first kiss. In other words, what you’re
trying to say, Yuu-chan’s, is that you’ve stolen Hideri-chan’s first kiss.”

“No, that not what I meant at all!?”

With my choice of words, I was just begging to be misunderstood.

Plus, since I said it all with a serious face, it probably further added to the
misunderstanding.

“Ahaha, it was a joke~. Did it cheer you up?”

“No, it didn’t – but thank you for trying.”

Ah, to be honest right now… I was feeling miserable.

I made someone worry about me once again.

However, like before, the kindness of these upperclassmen – it really saved me.

“Still, for Yuu-chan to speak of Catgirl-senpai, Hideri-chan must have said

something.”

“That’s right, but I was the one who asked her about it.”

“I see~. Since she can’t meet with senpai anymore, Hideri-chan – she hasn’t
talked about senpai in forever.”

“Ah –”
 I didn’t know what it was that I originally wanted to say, but I wasn’t able to say
anything else.

Noticing my predicament, Kumin-senpai gave a gentle smile.

“There’s no need to worry. Even if they are unable to meet, senpai will live on in
Hideri-chan’s heart for all of eternity. Hehe, in fact I think that good thing that Hideri-
chan has told you about her. I’m sure that Hideri-chan’s told you about senpai since
she’s really fond of you, Yuu-chan.”

“That’s… that’s wrong, I forced –”

“You really are Mr. Worry, Yuu-chan. Normally – even when forcing her – if
she didn’t want to talk about it, then she wouldn’t have said anything about it at all.
Not to say that Hideri-chan is normal, but – to Hideri-chan, Catgirl-senpai is
‘special’.”

“…Special.”

“She’s such a child, that Hideri-chan.”

As she said that, Kumin-senpai nodded her head as if to agree with herself.

Special to Amaniji-senpai, huh?

It sounded like she was a very special person.

I was extremely curious as to the type of person that Catgirl-senpai was.

However, it didn’t seem right for me to enquire and hear about her any further. Just
when I was about to change the subject –

“Do you want to hear an amusing story about Hideri-chan and Catgirl-senpai?”

Kumin-senpai said that. Moreover, she continued:

“Are you interested?”

“You’ve raised quite the high bar…”

“Ahaha, it’s because you’ve told me that you know about Catgirl-senpai. I was
wondered if you wanted to hear a bit more about her~.”
 “…Err, in that case, please go ahead.”

“Yay! You see, Hideri-chan, she seriously admires Catgirl-senpai – she admires
her so much that one time, she came to school wearing a cat costume, and said things
like “We’ve become Catgirl-senpai”. The teachers got so mad at her, they made her
write an apology letter! Well? Amusing, wasn’t it~?”

“……”

As a result of the bar being set so high, it was questionable as to whether I could
say that story was amusing: rather, it just seemed like a very Amaniji-senpai-like thing
for her to do.

She’s someone who goes out of their way to be extraordinary.

At any rate, Amaniji-senpai… Is it that you’re fond of mascot costumes?

Rather, for that to be deemed against the rules even at our school… looks like I
was mistaken in my belief that at our school, anything goes.

“Huh, was that not amusing to you? Ri-right, this next one will definitely be
amusing!”

“No, it’s not that it wasn’t amusing, but rather… the bar you’ve set –”

“Wait, let me tell one more! If this one isn’t amusing, I’ll give you my pillow!”

“You’re setting the bar even higher!?”

Kumin-senpai’s honestly incredible.

Normally, you’d be begging for the bar to not be set any higher.

I wonder if this too was due to her airheadedness… looks like every member of
the Eccentric Drama Club is extraordinary!

“Umm, let’s see, Catgirl-senpai really was a bit strange. Speaking of her being
strange, she was a strange person in that she was always wearing cat ears –”

Kumin-senpai began to reminisce about Catgirl-senpai slowly.

You could tell that she missed Catgirl-senpai.

 Since there’s this nostalgic mood, I’m deeply sorry for this, but I couldn’t resist.
My bad habit – the need to retort to everything – showed itself.

“Eh!? At this school, wearing cat ears is fine!?”

“Ahaha, but you see, Catgirl-senpai only wore them during club activities. She
really was a peculiar upperclassman. She would say stuff like “It’s my identity! Heh
heh heh, since this is the Eccentric Drama Club, I must show off my individuality!””

“Ah, so it was only during club activities… Sorry, I just…”

“However, it was probably also fine if she wore them all the time too. There was
even a period of time where the principal mimicked her~.”

“……”

Really, that principal. Nothing’s out of bounds for that person.

Hearing this made me really want to know the reason why mascot costumes
were deemed as against the school rules.

“Yeah, so that was the sort of person she was. A person who cherished having
great individuality. And a person who’s always doing strange things. Like adding
strange menu options to the school’s cafeteria asking the cafeteria staff to make it, or
like conducting after-school lessons despite not being a teacher. She was a third-year
student, and yet she gave off the impression that she was set for the university
entrance exams.”

“…She sounds like a really amazing upperclassman.”

“Yep, that’s right. She was an amazing upperclassman. And a funny

upperclassman. A wonderfully kind upperclassman too. Hideri-chan and I were the
only other club members back then – first years who still didn’t know their left from
their right. Even so, she still taught us all sorts of different things. In fact, the current
play is also related to Catgirl-senpai –”

“I’ve already heard about all this from Amaniji-senpai. It’s why – why she
wanted to perform the play no matter what, right?”

“Oh, you’ve already heard all this before? It’s rather unusual though, for Hideri-
chan to be talking about this. That’s right – it was actually the script for the play we
were meant to perform at last year’s cultural festival, but Catgirl-senpai hurt herself.
As a result, this play was meant to be shelved, but Hideri-chan – see, she wanted to
make this make sure that this was the club’s last play at all costs.”

“…Is that so?”

“Hideri-chan – even now, she has almost no interest in anything but “strange
people”, right? That’s why, I’m of the belief that she earnestly reveres the things that
Catgirl-senpai had left behind. This play too is no exception –this script, I wonder if
senpai wanted for it to be performed as a guerrilla play?”

For no more than a brief moment, Kumin-senpai looked towards the skies as she
spoke. Her eyes appeared to be looking at the distant past.

It seemed that a great deal of Amaniji-senpai’s feelings were also contained in

Kumin-senpai’s words just now.

These earnest feelings– they’ve reached me now.

That’s why.

In response to these thoughts – I couldn’t reject them out of hand. It was

impossible. I couldn’t ignore them.

The feelings of Kumin-senpai, and the person called Catgirl-senpai – I didn’t

want for their wishes to not be met.

However, it might just be my own selfishness that’s making me feel this way.

Unconsciously, I –

“The guerrilla aspect about this play too – you want that be a success, right?”

– let that slip out.

It really was done unconsciously.

I was still hesitant about its guerrilla nature, which might have been an
annoyance for her – if she got mad, I’ll apologise to her by prostrating myself.

“That’s right, and so everyone will need to work hard~! Ahaha, sorry, I was
supposed to be telling you an amusing story, but instead I told a memorable one.
Guess I’ll have to give Yuu-chan my pillow…”
 “It’s fine, there’s no need for that. It was an amusing story. So that was the sort
of person your upperclassman. Still, wasn’t the script that she had had in mind really
unreasonable? The club only had three members, and yet the script had five main
roles.”

“Right? However, it’s persuasive when she says stuff like: “Aren’t things more
interesting when you’re given lots of roles? It’s impossible for the leading actress to
have another role though, as she’s on the stage the entire time.” Incidentally, I
originally also had the ‘Lord of Witches’ role~. Although it was sad to have been
dropped from the role, I’m still full of spirit! “

“That’s not the sort of line the Witch of Cinderella would say.”

It was as out of place as if a witch gotten on a deck brush.

Still, if she really did say such strange and compelling words, I could see how
they got convinced.

I could sort of understand why Amanij-senpai admired her.

“But, I do think that it’s more interesting to be able to work together with Yuu-
chan and friends~. With more people, there’ll be a lot more individuality. That’s why
I’m so glad that you guys are helping out~!”

“Hearing something like that, it makes me –”

Right when I started to say something –

BAM! It was the sound of the door opening.

Turning my eyes towards the door, there happened to be three people there –
Rikka, Shichimiya, and Amaniji-senpai entered the principal’s office together, stating
in unison “delayed due to cleaning duty!”

The three of them were getting along quite well. Incidentally, only Rikka was
‘delayed due to cleaning duty’.

With their arrival, all the members of the Eccentric Drama Club have now
gathered.

…Now what do I say?

 It’s rather uplifting to have everyone present.

I’m probably feeling this way largely as a result of having just spoken with
Kumin-senpai about the circumstances surrounding the play.

At first only wanted to help her out little by little, but now it’s different.

Now – I too want for this play to be a complete success.

That’s what I’ll say.

And so I said it. Earnestly. Sincerely.

“Amaniji-senpai! Me, I’ll give it my absolute all with the play! Even the
guerrilla aspect of it, let’s do it and shock everybody with it!”

Amaniji-senpai was completely dumbfounded, with eyes turning into dots from
surprise as I added at the end, “Let’s give it our all with practice!” She then grinned,
and –

“It’s so like you, Yuu-chan, for you to surprise us! However, it’s normal to
practice normally! As such, we’ll never do something like the usual full run-through
to practice! The play will be more interesting if it’s performed with no rehearsals! Ah,
but please do properly memorise all the dialogue and the flow of events! That’s all for
today! Now then, let’s all have lunch together!”

– announced all that.

This time, it was my turn for my eyes to become dots.

“Give my determination back to meeeeeeee!!!”

I couldn’t help but scream.

[1] A mask in Noh theatre (which is a major form of classical Japanese musical
drama) that represents a jealous female demon.

[2] An oranyan (オラニャン) is a male who’s cold to almost everyone but sweet to
the girl he loves.

[3] This string of nonsensical words, along with the following “geki oko punpun
maru” is meant to be gyaru talk for being mad. Out of the 6 stages, ‘geki oko-stic
finaleality punpun dream’ is the most mad, while ‘geki oko punpun maru’ (which also
sounds less ridiculous) is only the fourth-most mad.

[4] Potentially referring to Tanomo Saigou, a famous Japanese samurai. Yuuta did
mention he wanted to be a samurai.

[5] I didn’t have a good way of translating this pun. One way of interpreting the
original sentence, ネタ振り――間違えた、寝たふりだから, is that Kumin was
making setting up for a joke (ネタ振り) and so she pretended to fall asleep (寝たふ
りだから) after making a mistake (間違えた). The pun here is that the two phrasesネ
タ振りand 寝たふり are read in the same way (netafuri). However, ふりis 振りin
hiragana, which, in this case, means either to pretend or to lead in (a joke), meaning
that another way of interpreting this sentence is: “I pretended to joke – whoops, I
mean, I pretended to be asleep.”

[6] Love (こい, koi) shares the same pronunciation as koi, a type of carp.

[7] One of the two mascots for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp baseball team.

[8] Literally translated, the sentence is: “Hmm, to not playing along and confess:
you’re heartless, Yuu-chan.” The original pun here was between the words白状し
(meaning to confess) and 薄情 (meaning heartless), as they are both pronounced はく
じょう (hakujō).

[9] An untranslatable pun. Here, Yuuta makes the connection between the word
remark (一言) and the phrase someone else’s affairs (他人事), as they are both share
similar pronunciations (ひとこと [hitokoto] and ひとごと[hitogoto]).

Chapter 7: Death Devil

In the end, not even once did we practice normally – it was now September 8th.

In other words, it was now the day before the cultural festival.

It had only been a week since summer vacation ended, and yet it felt as if a lot
longer had passed.

Although the large event known as the cultural festival was just around the
corner, it had been overshadowed by the fact that I had been preoccupied by an event
for every day of this week.
 The event that had consumed my week – the Eccentric Drama Club’s final
activity.

Even though we didn’t practice normally at the meetings, we still gathered as a

club together daily.

And now, it was after the end of today’s activities – I was currently in the middle
of walking home from school with Rikka.

“It was a fierce battle today as well. Arc-san and Siesta-san are strong!”

Rikka appeared cheerful as she spoke.

To be able to see a scene like this – it truly was a sight for sore eyes.

I was seeing the thing that made me the happiest: Rikka’s smiling face.

It made me really grateful that we were able to participate in the activities of the
Eccentric Drama Club together.

Thinking back on it – through the course of our activities at the Eccentric Drama
Club, not even once did we practice for the play normally.

The day after the announcement that there was to be no normal forms of practice
– Sunday, September 4th.

We were unable to meet as a club at school given that it was a day off, so instead
we gathered at a karaoke.

We gathered for a karaoke competition between all the members.

Per Amaniji-senpai: “Firstly, we start with vocal training. Since normal vocal
drills are very boring, we’ll be practicing via karaoke instead. Moreover, there’s no
better place to express one’s peculiar idiosyncrasies[1] than karaoke!”

Wow.

Still, and just like what senpai was expecting, everyone laid bare their peculiar
idiosyncrasies (?).

Naturally, Rikka gave a solo performance, and poured her heart and soul into her
songs (she had consented to having the Eccentric Drama Club watch her
performance). Amaniji-senpai too gave it her all, and showcased her kink by banging
her head to every song.

Given that the performances of Shichimiya and I were overshadowed by those

two and that the performances themselves were embarrassing, I’ll omit the details
about us singing.

As for Kumin-senpai, she had fallen asleep midway through the session. After
she had sung a few songs, it was nap time for her.

For her to be able to sleep in such an environment: it’s not normal.

In a sense, she took a form that expressed her most peculiar idiosyncrasy.

Then, on the following days – from September 5th to September 7th – we spent
our time after school in the principal’s office, making costumes.

Per Amaniji-senpai: “Since it’s one role per person, we’ll be making unique
costumes for the play! The person who makes the costume that most lives up to the
idiosyncratic nature of the Eccentric Drama Club wins!”

In a way, that viewpoint of hers was quite reasonable.

As the script originally had for two roles per person (as well as its guerrilla
nature), it was originally for the best that our costumes were just our school uniform
adorned with small trinkets.

However, since it’s now one person per role, it was good for each role’s costume
to be as flashy as possible, as that way it becomes easier to differentiate who’s who.

And so, everyone started to make their own costumes.

Over the course of those three days, I had a lot of fun. Making the costumes
whilst having pleasant chats with the other club members was great.

Especially since sewing wasn’t my strong point, I was helped by the others in
making my costume. In addition to Rikka, who burns with an unusual zeal when it
comes to making costumes, I was also aided by Shichimiya, a prodigy whose
enthusiasm seemed to rival Rikka’s, and Amaniji-senpai, who had (in a bit of a bad
way) an overwhelming sense of colour. Thanks to their help, I think I was able to
make something good.
 As for Kumin-senpai – during the club activities she worked in earnest on
making her costume, and didn’t nap at all. She was also surprisingly good at it too.
When I asked her about how she was so skilled, she puffed her chest out and
answered: “I can sew because I sometimes make my own pillowcases~.”

Somehow, girls who can sew have not gone extinct.

Although three days was quite short, everyone had finished on making their
costumes (which had matched their owner’s personality to a T), and so today,
September 8th, we held a game tournament in the principal’s office.

Per Amaniji-senpai: “It doesn’t feel normal at all, for everyone to be doing stuff
like playing games at such a critical period. It’s kind of like playing games the day
before a test. So, let’s enjoy ourselves with everything we’ve got!”

So started our enjoyable game time – needless to say, no one was able to match
Rikka-san.

She was without peer.

By the way, the game we played was a game that could be played by 5 players at
once, Super Bomberman 3 (it was the principal’s personal copy). However, and
showing just how peerless she was, we even lost against Rikka 1 v 4.

It goes without saying, but Rikka seemed to have had the most fun.

But, well, looking back on how happy Rikka was, I too could accept what had
happened today.

I also had a good time as well.

“From tomorrow onwards it’ll be the cultural festival. Soon… it’s too soon.
Recently, it feels that time has been passing too quickly – is there something
happening to me?” asked Rikka.

What a cute question.

“Well, it’s the same for me as well, Rikka. After entering high school, time feels
as if it’s passed very fast.”

“Is that so? If Yuuta too feels the same way, then it’s alright.”
 Relieved, Rikka nodded her head once.

“If Yuuta has the same syndrome, then we’ll be passing away at the same time.”

“……”

Was this a disease?

Although if it really were one, it’d be quite the scary disease.

The rapid passing of fun times – although it seemed rather fictional, hearing
Rikka talk about me made me feel as if I really did contract such a strange disease.

Yeah. Her words had that sort of power.

“Yuuta… please listen to me for a bit. About tomorrow’s dance: to be honest,

I’m actually a little anxious about it. I feel as if some my powers of darkness won’t
come out…”

“Anxious?”

“Yeah, but only just a little. Since it’s my first time doing something like this.”

“…I too am quite anxious about my part; surely, everyone else is too. Even so,
I’m sure things will turn out fine. So just do your best, Rikka.”

“…Right. Yeah, if Yuuta says so, then it’s alright.”

After saying that, she nodded her head again. This time, however, it was done
bashfully.

For even Rikka to also be feeling anxious about this situation: it made me want
to do something to wipe away her unease. What would be a good way of doing that?

……

…Nothing came to mind.

Guess I’ll just keep pondering about it tomorrow.

“But as for the play, I’m not worried about it at all. Since Yuuta is together with
me.”
 “Well… I’m worried about it though… I mean, in the end, we didn’t even
practice normally once, did we?”

“I have been practicing by myself, so I’m fine. Right now, together – do you
want to practice?”

“It’s fine, I too have been practicing by myself – or rather, been practicing with
Yumeha. Even so, anxiety’s still anxiety. I’m not good at performing like you or
Shichimiya.”

“That’s not true. Yuuta just needs act naturally as the Dark Flame Master: it’s
super simple!”

“…Indeed.”

Though personally, I found that the hardest part.

However, given that I could dramatically increase my own acting abilities by

calling on the me of the past for help, there… shouldn’t be a problem on that front.

It would depend on the situation at the time as to whether it could be used

though.

I guess I’ve got to get Kumin-senpai angry then.

“Yuuta, your face is a bit weird.”

“Eh, ah, oh, it’s nothing!”

And with a vague statement like that, I tried to brush things off.

As usual, my acting in times of emergencies was awful.

“Really? If that’s the case, then there’s no problem. Since Yuuta had the face of
someone who wanted someone else to be angry at him.”

“Isn’t that too definitive for a mere face!?”

“It’s the ability of the Devilish Truth Stare. To know everything about Yuuta.”

“Everything?”
 “Everything.”

She affirmed it immediately.

I’m not sure if I should be happy or scared about it.

After that exchange, Rikka, with a carefree smile, talked at length about
tomorrow, the dance, the costumes, and the play.

Like how fun things were going to be.

And how pleasant things were going to be.

And how great things were going to be.

She spoke about it all.

Suddenly – I thought back to how things were several months ago.

Before the two of us started going out, Rikka was always alone. She was
expressionless as she attended school; a girl whose head was always tilted when it was
time for math.

The days of her being like that seemed so distant that it almost felt nostalgic.

Nowadays, Rikka’s no longer like that at all.

Now – there’s only the Rikka who was happy, who was delighted, who had fun,
and was all smiles every day.

That alone was enough to make me feel blessed.

It’s why I too will need to keep doing my best as well.

That’s why I told her this.

“The cultural festival, let’s go enjoy it together.”

“Yeah!” replied Rikka with her best smile.

◆
 Because my conversation with Rikka was so enjoyable, I was a bit late in
returning home.

It was now almost night-time.

The blood red sky was slowly giving way to an indigo blue.

Having parted ways with Rikka, I was now on my way home.

Currently in my line of sight was the back of a girl walking just a few steps
ahead of me.

As she walked by herself, she shook her long twin-tails around, causing her long
shadow to move as well.

Twin-tails – it wasn’t quite accurate to call her hair that, given that her hairstyle
was a bit different from actual twin-tails, but if I was forced to briefly describe her, I
would describe her as a twin-tailed girl.

On the ends of her twin-tails, however, was something dangerous attached – if

you only looked at the shadow cast by the setting sun, you would think that there was
a hammer was affixed to the ends of her hair.

In addition, the colour of her hair was similar to the colour of milk tea, a
beautiful light brown.

Just from that, I could figure out who she is. There’s only one person in the
entire world who would fit that description.

Dekomori Sanae.

A girl who Rikka newly contracted as her servant during summer vacation; a girl
in her third year of middle school.

As she wasn’t her school uniform, I’m guessing that she was on her way back
after having made an outing somewhere.

In any case, she was wearing amazing Lolita-styled clothes. It felt as if I was
looking at Rikka.

Hmm.
 I mean, although she’s merely an acquaintance, given that she’s walking right
before my eyes (and alone too), that she’s a middle school student, and that it’s almost
night-time, it was probably necessary for me to watch over her so that she doesn’t get
caught up with any weird people.

There were enough reasons for me to feel a need to escort her.

…Yeah, that’s right.

Given that I’ve already given thought to escorting her, I would feel very bad
should something happen to Dekomori on her way home. As such, I’ll escort her
home. We’re more or less acquainted after all.

On that note, it’s quite possible that Dekomori might view me as said weird
person, but let’s just turn a blind eye to that possibility.

There’s only one person in the entire world who would want for themselves to be
treated as a weird person, and that person’s most likely that upperclassman.

With that in mind, I increased my pace and called out to her from behind.

“Oi, Dekomori–!”

It seems that she recognised my voice, as she stopped and looked back.

However, “an acquaintance” seemed to also be the degree in which she knew
me.

It appeared that she couldn’t tell who I was, as she glared at me for a bit with
eyes as if I was someone suspicious – “Huh? Who’s this? Is this someone one of my
friends knows?” was what her eyes seemed to say.

What an oddly specific glare.

“Ah, it’s DFM-death.”

“Hey! Don’t say it abbreviated!”

I have no idea who this ‘DFM’ is.

…But, what I do know for sure is that it’s ‘Dark Flame Master’ in full!
 “Aren’t you the selfish person-death. Let’s see now, I’m pretty sure it was…
Door(D) Floor(F) Masker(M)-san-death[2]…?”

“The hell!? You don’t even know what it’s short for!?”

“Pfft, Dekomori is part of the faction who do not use strategy guides-death!”

“Is my full name only listed in a strategy guide or something!?”

Rather, why did that girl randomly say bring strategy guides up!?

What a fascinating leap of logic.

“What-death? Why do you look so surprised? What is it-death? Ah, is it that you
found what I said so fascinating that you wished for me to repeat myself-death? Looks
like it can’t be helped-death. Why, see, what Dekomori said was that unlike your
lowly self, Dekomori is the type of existence that detests the use of strategy guides-
death!”

“Your words have no modestly at all! More importantly, isn’t it strange to be

using something like this as a pretext to establish that excessively chuunibyou
setting!?”

“Chuunibyou? What is the Dark Flame Master on about-death? It seems that

you’ve either gone crazy or insane-death. Dekomori’s words were not a pretext for
something-death: there weren’t even any parentheses attached-death!”

“……”

“To begin with, Dekomori is not infected by a funny disease like that-death. Did
you forget-death? Dekomori’s ability is the power to move between the 2D and 3D
realm-death!”

“What? That’s dangerous! Bring me along to the 2D realm too!”

As usual, I was feeling envious.

Well, but I mean, anyone would be envious of such an ability.

More importantly though, she remembered that it was the Dark Flame Master.
 “By the way, what are you doing in a place like this-death? Ah, is it because of
Master? If it were like usual, you were probably flirting with Master while the two of
you were together, saying “Rikka Rikka Rikka Rikka Rikka”, weren’t you-death? To
be honest, I envy you-death.”

“Oi, don’t make me such a lovey-dovey type of person. I have never done such a
thing. …Though I did part with Rikka here just now.”

“Have never done…? I see, so it’s like that-death. So you’re that sort of person,
the type who excessively flirts only at parting, aren’t you? Dekomori frequently
comes across people like you in front of the ticket gates at the train station-death.
Dekomori calls people like you a ‘Station Carressing Lover(Station Pet)’-death!”

“Don’t call me something that detestable! But, well… I too see people like that
quite often!”

What was up with those type of people anyway?

Why do they do stuff like clinging to each other in public, and getting teary
when they part?

“It was meant to be a joke-death. As expected, someone like you was too stupid
to figure that out-death. Your brain must be made out of candy-death. Then again, it’s
not like that part of you bothers Dekomori and Master-death… Gehehehe…!”

“You know, Dekomori… you are a girl: you should laugh in a cuter manner…”

“Hmph. It seems like you don’t comprehend just how elegant this laugh is-death,
kepupupu.”

“That’s not cute at all!”

“Ah! Damn-death! It was a trap-death! You coward-death!”

And, with an expression that signalled that she felt really hurt, Dekomori turned
on her heel and walked away.

I had trouble telling if she was walking away due to shock, or walking away
since she didn’t have any urgent business here. Either way, since her pace was slow, I
ended up walking right next to her, and was heading home together with her.

…Was she seriously feeling down? Even though she’s a deko[3].

 I highly doubt that that was the case here.

Still, it would be bad if I did end up hurting a middle school girl, and so it was
best that I said something positive to her next.

“Um, listen, Rikka’s also likes the way things currently are between you and her.
It’s just, well, as you might expect, it’s hard for me to overlook you saying that I act
like a Station Carressing Lover(Station Pet).”

“Oh? Suddenly the Door Floor Masker is looking down on me-death! It can’t be,
you’re acting as if you’re her boyfriend?”

“I am her boyfriend! More importantly, don’t try to make that name work!”

What a fast flip-flop that was! Just a moment ago, I was being treated as an
overly lovey-dovey boyfriend. Moreover, she wasn’t feeling down at all.

Since her reversal came so fast, I ended up wasting my breath yelling at her.

Why was it a waste of breath? It was because my angry voice didn’t even make
Dekomori flinch: rather, she continued on with the conversation.

“? But Master has never said that you were her boyfriend-death?”

“No, but she had said that I’m her contractee, right?”

“If that’s the case, then Dekomori is also Master’s boyfriend, since Dekomori is
also contracted to Master as a servant-death!”

“……”

You’re okay with being her boyfriend…?

Moreover, she said it whilst wearing a weirdly triumphant expression.

However, I had to be firm here.

“See, in my case, being her contractee – it means being her fiancé.”

“Yikes, it’s a one person bacouple[4]-death!”

“……”
 I was told by middle school student that I was a one person bacouple.

Well, it is true that I haven’t promised Rikka that I’d marry her, so in that sense
it wasn’t inaccurate to call me a one person bacouple…

But then again, what exactly is a one person bacouple?

Isn’t that just an idiot?

“Maybe the rotten commoner isn’t aware of this, but to be someone’s fiancé
don’t you need an engagement ring-death? And since you don’t have one, you must
not be her fiancé-death!”

“No, well… yeah, you’re right. Still, you shouldn’t really be saying to someone
that they’re something like a “rotten commoner”.”

“Eh? Fine then – Rot! You commoner!”

“The imperative form!? Dekomori, you don’t call your friends or acquaintances
things like “rotten commoner”, do you?”

“Hmph… of course not-death. Dekomori is a solitary warrior-death, and so any

подругаs[5] that I’ve opened my heart to will be called by an appropriate name-
death.”

“Подруга…?”

“Kepupu! Don’t you know what that means-death? Looks like in the end, you’re
merely just a Dark Flame Master!”

“You still haven’t corrected the way you laugh… Shouldn’t you have already
fixed it by now…?

Still, I had a much better impression of her now, since she had stopped calling
me a rotten commoner and had instead started to call me by my actual alias.

I’m not sure if I should call that part of her earnest, or thoughtful.

“Oh! It seems that the curse is still effective-death…! As expected, you really are
Dekomori’s rival-death! Dekomori will guard Master-death! And then for Dekomori,
Master will… Gehehehehehe!”
 “Wait, what’s with the yuri[6]-like statements every now and then!?”

“Huh? It’s not like that-death! Dekomori just really respects and admires Master-
death! The Dark Flame Master might not understand-death, but to Dekomori Master is
a being that Dekomori wants to call onee-sama-death!”

Dekomori’s face was full of resentment as she spoke fervently. And thus, a new
fact was discovered.

Dekomori was really, really fond Rikka.

“Onee-sama, let’s use that! On that note, “yes, well thought!” Say that as a reply!
Dekomori has always wanted to try something like this at least once!

“Yes, well thought.”

And in the very instant I said that line as a joke – Dekomori’s weapon, what she
coins the Mjölnir Hammer, made a crushing blow on my stomach. “Uwaaaaaaa!” is
what I would scream if I had to scream what was currently going through my mind.”

The blow was so strong that I stopped breathing for a moment.

“SUPER INAZUMA ATTACK-DEAAATH![7]”

“Indeed, that attack’s offensive ability was…”

After hitting me, Dekomori then perfectly replicated the trademarked pose.

She was quite the able girl.

“Returning back to the previous topic, about calling Master onee-sama – “That is
not my name,” is what Master said, and so Dekomori calls Master Master-death.”

“O-oh… is that so?”

…Since Rikka was quite popular among girls, I get somewhat suspicious when I
hear statements like that.

Even the reversed Kazari-chan seemed to fancy Rikka a lot.

Now that I think about it – I don’t have any male rivals, do I?

 “Well, when Dekomori inevitably marries marry Master, I’ll be sure to invite
you too-death. So just give up-death.”

““Just give up” huh… However, I’d never hand Rikka over!”

“It’s futile-death. According to Dekomori’s sources, first loves are doomed to

fail-death!”

“That’s not something that a middle school girl should say! And something like
that’s not the case at all!”

“Hah, there are no falsehoods written in the Mabinogion-death!”

“Ma-mabinogion?”

This girl, what on earth was she talking about?

As expected of someone currently suffering from chuunibyou, from time to time

she begins to start talking nonsense.

Up till just then, we were having, at least in my opinion, a more or less normal
conversation. Now, however, I’m failing to keep pace with her train of thought.

“DEATH![8]”

“Not to say that I understood the meaning behind your words, but what’s the
reasoning behind your conduct just now!?”

Please don’t suddenly jump and scream out loud again.

It generally startles the other person. To do it so abruptly makes it seem as if you

had picked a fight with them.

“Dekomori was just that surprised-death. That the Dark Flame Master was still
incapable of comprehending what both Dekomori’s and his own settings were-death.”

“Don’t say something that harsh so modestly. But, well, somehow, I do get what
you’re trying to say. When you say setting, it’s like your position, right? When I was
entering high school, I too wondered what my position in the class should be.”

Although, in the end – I ended up being a low-profile sort of character.

 Right now, my position is ‘Rikka’s boyfriend’. My presence was so weak that a
term like ‘Rikka-chan’s boyfriend’ epitomised the entirety of who I was.

“Kepupu! The ‘Dark’ in Dark Flame Master seems to mean having a faint
presence-death! Perhaps you should change your name to ‘Faint Flame Master’-
death!”

“Hey, my presence is actually… a little stronger than that…”

I mean, you’re laughing way too much about it. And you still haven’t fixed the
way you laugh.

Is laughing like that part of your setting or something? Laugh properly.

“Gehehehehe, it seems that the faint shadow poison is still works-death…! As

expected, its effect of reducing you to nothing but a faint shadow lasts for a long time-
death!”

“My name’s gradually becoming worse and worse! Listen, my –”

“Reality, be rent! Synapse, break!”

“Listen to me about my name! …And as for what you said just now, that was
something that Rikka had also been saying lately.”

“Death! It’s Dekomori’s secret technique-death! Its effect is –”

“…Eh? Effect?”

“By the way, for some reason Master says that there is an aspect of the Dark
Flame Master that lives up to the name of Demon King-death – whereabouts is that
evil persona-death? As far as Dekomori can tell, you’re someone feeble-death.”

“Oi, tell me about its effect. And, well… about me being the Demon King, don’t
worry about it. I no longer have that kind of power anymore.”

“What, so in the end you really were just a small fry compared to Dekomori-
death! Geheheh, dea~th!”

“Ha! It was an afterimage!”

 Evading the sudden attack from the Mjölnir Hammer (for some reason, my
wonderful intuition was telling me I was about to be hit), I struck Dekomori on her
small head lightly.

As a result of having avoided both her attack and her stupidity, Dekomori
groaned in frustration.

“You, you harmed me-death. Could it be that you actually were still the Demon
King-death? No, must be it-death. Master must have had talked about you being the
Demon King because Dekomori had been deceived by you-death! Well, Dekomori
has her goddamn eye on you now! As long as Dekomori is Master’s servant,
Dekomori will turn Dark Flame Master’s life into finely minced spring onions over
the course of three days!”

“What the hell it is that you are trying to say!?”

“Well.”

And with that, Dekomori stopped talking.

It was likely that she got so worked up that it was just her enthusiasm talking,
and so she had no idea what it was that she was trying to say.

“The play, so that at best, you’re not doing something like getting in Master’s
way – do your best-death.”

“Don’t try to forcibly bring an end the previous conversation! And, huh? How do
you know about the play?”

“Death, it’s because I had communicated via telepathy with Master just the other
day-death.”

“……”

To not just say something like you called her over the phone: as expected of a
patient.

“Oh, thanks, I’ll be sure to keep doing my best. Oh, right, the play will be on
next Saturday, and so if you’re interested Dekomori, please come and watch. If you
do come, well in that case I’ll be sure to treat you to something.”
 “There was no need for Dark Flame Master to ask me to come – of course
Dekomori planned on coming-death. Ah, are you still going to properly treat me out to
something-death?”

Dekomori looked up at me with only her eyes, which emphasised the fact that
her eyes were getting teary.

Seeing this part of her reminded me that in the end, she really was just someone
a year level below me; a middle school student who stretched her back and stood on
her tiptoes to make herself look taller.

I do seem to recall hearing that her family was ridiculously wealthy though…

Still, this felt sort of nostalgic.

It kind of reminds me of the time when I first met Rikka.

An underclassman to me both in terms of being a chuunibyou patient, and in

terms of actual age.

To be honest, she kind of feels like another younger sister to me.

“I got it, I got it. I’ll still treat you out to something proper.”

“Gehehe, I guess even the Dark Flame Master can occasionally be nice-death.
However, don’t forget-death. Dekomori and Dark Flame Master are beings that can
never co-exist together-death! Nothing but death to those who love Master!”

“…Yeah, yeah.”

What a thing to say with a triumphant expression.

I mean, didn’t you also love Rikka? Well, it’s not like I could say anything in
response about it, since I too could understand that feeling.

“The contract has been established too – well then, since Dekomori must return
soon to the battlefield as she is a warrior, here is where we part ways-death.”

“That setting… I like it. Oh, see you.”

After sticking her tongue out at me, Dekomori turned her back towards me and
started to make her way back.
 Not to the battlefield, but to her own house.

As I looked at her small back, I thought to myself that even she too could get
embarrassed, and that I should too should keep doing my best.

Tomorrow’s the cultural festival.

[1] Same kanji (特殊性癖) for what I’ve translated earlier as “special fetish”, giving
Yuuta’s following line its double meaning.

[2] In the original Japanese text, Dekomori remembers DFM as 団(D)地ふ(F)すまも

(M)しもし (danchi fusuma moshimoshi; literally Apartment Complex Fusuma [type
of Japanese sliding panel] Hello) instead of ダークフレイムマスター (dauku
fureimu mastutau). To retain the joke, it is translated here as a bunch of nonsense that
rhymes with Dark Flame Master.

[3] A pun lost in translation. Feeling down, or 凹んでる, can also mean ‘cave in’.
This (in particular 凹, which by itself can be interpreted as concave) then plays on the
next line, 凸なのに, as 凸 can be read as the opposite of 凹 (convex), and the fact that
凸 is part of Dekomori’s name (凸守). The joke here is that Dekomori, much like her
name, should be the opposite of 凹, or in this case feeling down. Interestingly, 凸 by
itself, at least when read as でこ (deko), also means forehead.

[4] This was an awkward line to translate. In the original line, the phrase “一人バカ
ップル” was used, which when translated literally means “one person idiot couple”.
The term バカップル itself is a portmanteau of the words バカ(idiot) and カップル
(couple), and refers to a couple that’s either too stupid when it comes to romance or
too romantic for their own good. I couldn’t figure out a good way of phrasing the
notion of a ‘bacouple’ in this and the following lines, so I left it as-is.

[5] Russian for a female friend.

[6] Slang for girl’s love.

[7] From the line of “Onee-sama, let’s use that!”, to “SUPER INAZUMA ATTACK-
DEATH!”, Dekomori and Yuuta are referring to the scene in the series Gunbuster in
which the protagonists use the Super Inazuma Kick.

[8] Capitalised and in English in the original text.